Phú Quốc and Hạ Long are forecast to be magnets attracting tourists to Việt Nam, with growth in tourist numbers at over 30 per cent per year.

Việt Nam’s tourism sector sees record growth

Last year was a milestone for Việt Nam's tourism industry, with a record of 15.6 million international visitors, increasing by 2.7 million from the previous year. With more than 80 million domestic visitors, the total revenue from tourists reached over VNĐ620 trillion (US$26.61 billion) in 2018.

This is an impressive figure for the tourism industry, helping to soon realise the goal of welcoming 32 million international tourists by 2025 and 47 million international visitors by 2030.

According to some travel experts, to achieve this as well as maintain growth momentum, the role of famous tourist sites is significant. These places act as ‘magnets’ to attract tourists.

Previously, international visitors to Việt Nam focused mainly on traditional places such as Hà Nội, HCM City and Huế. Today, new attractive destinations like Phú Quốc and Hạ Long are seeing more outstanding growth.

Attractive new destinations such as Phú Quốc and Hạ Long are growing rapidly.

Magnets attracting new visitors

According to statistics, Phú Quốc welcomed over 4 million tourists in 2018, including 430,000 international visitors. Notably, the tourist growth rate of Phú Quốc reached 36 per cent, with international visitors increasing by 30 per cent.

Last year was also brilliant for tourism in Quảng Ninh. The province welcomed 12.2 million tourist arrivals, an increase of 24 per cent over the same period in 2017. Of which, international visitors reached 5.2 million, up over 22 per cent against 2017. The number of tourists in 2018 was 10 times higher than the population of Quảng Ninh Province.

A series of projects have been built, such as the Hạ Long - Vân Đồn, Hạ Long – Hải Phòng Expressway, Vân Đồn International Airport, Hạ Long International Passenger Port and a range of resorts and golf courses. New tourism services and products have drastically changed the face of the city, the face of the tourism industry and the lives of people in Quảng Ninh.

Decision 702/QĐ-TTg, approving the adjustment of the general planning of Hạ Long City to 2040, was approved by Deputy Prime Minister Trịnh Đình Dũng.

Accordingly, the city will be developed under the multipolar model. Regarding the development of tourism, entertainment, resorts, international passenger ports, marinas and modern inland international wharves concentrated at Bãi Cháy - Hùng Thắng, cultural tourism in Hòn Gai area, high quality eco-tourism on Tuần Châu and Đại Yên, combined with neighbouring localities to supplement tourism support services.

At the same time, it is necessary to continue to attract investment in the system of high-quality hotels, resorts and entertainment areas to provide diverse services for tourists. Up to 524ha of land fund will be used to build accommodation facilities such as resorts, hotels and guest houses.

Phú Quốc has made great contributions in improving infrastructure. Phú Quốc International Airport (phase 1 and 2), An Thới international seaport, submarine electric cable, North-South main traffic axis, roads around the island and bypass routes for airports.

Similarly, Phú Quốc's rapid growth also benefitted greatly from infrastructure improvement. According to statistics, from 2005 to now, more than VNĐ25 trillion of the State budget has been poured into key infrastructure projects on the emerald island.

Some projects have changed the appearance of the emerald island such as: Phú Quốc International Airport (phase 1 and 2), An Thới international seaport, submarine sea cable, main transport axis North - South, roads around the island and airport branch roads.

According to statistics of the Management Board of Phú Quốc Economic Zone (Kiên Giang Province), there are currently nearly 300 licensed investment projects in Phú Quốc with capital of up to VNĐ370 trillion. Notably, many large and prestigious real estate investors such as Vingroup, Sun Group, BIM Group and CEO Group have big projects to change the face of Phú Quốc. In the near future, Phú Quốc will develop and become more attractive with this large capital inflow.

Both localities have diverse products such as discovery tourism, yacht trips, casinos and golf courses. In particular, tourism is thriving, promising to turn Hạ Long and Phú Quốc into a ‘resort paradise’ on the world tourism map.

Phú Quốc and Quảng Ninh’s spot on the tourism map of Việt Namis partly thanks to the efforts of local leaders. In Quảng Ninh Province, the strategy is to change from "brown to green" growth, while in Phú Quốc, it is a vision to become an international-class tourism island. It was the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyễn Ngọc Thiện who summarised the 2018 national tourism year in Quảng Ninh and highly appreciated the vision and the role of local leaders in tourism development.

Hạ Long and Phú Quốc will speed up in the future

To supplement tourism, resort real estate is also contributing to help Hạ Long and Phú Quốc diversify products and improve their ability to meet the increasing number of tourists in the future.

In the latest report on the overview of the resort real estate market in 2018 and prospects for 2019, Savills Hotels Asia Pacific stated that Việt Nam's tourism has grown strongly not only in the past two years but over the past decade. In the last ten years, the proportion of international visitors increased three times compared to the global growth rate. Notably, the growth rate is also two times higher than the region's growth rate.

Phú Quốc was voted by CNN as one of the top 19 most attractive destinations in Asia.

Mauro Gasparotti, Director of Savills Hotels Asia Pacific, gave a positive assessment of Việt Nam's resort real estate market in 2019 and looks forward to good results next year.

Thus, with a tourism growth rate of 24-35 per cent, Hạ Long and Phú Quốc are expected to be important magnets to attract tourists, contributing to the overall goal of Việt Nam's tourism industry. Motivated by rapidly growing visitor numbers, these landmarks also promise to become world-class resorts in the near future.