This remark was made by Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Doan Van Viet at an online conference held between the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the People’s Committee of Kien Giang Province and the People’s Committee of Phu Quoc City on September 23, with the chair of Deputy Minister Doan Van Viet and Vice Chairman of Kien Giang Provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Luu Trung.
Deputy Minister Doan Van Viet emphasised that the end of November to the beginning of December is a time when international tourists travel in large numbers. The plan to welcome back foreign tourists to the island city of Phu Quoc will determine the next phase of Vietnam’s tourism recovery.
Reporting at the conference, Director of the Kien Giang Provincial Department of Tourism Bui Quoc Thai said that the provincial Department of Tourism has reviewed and proposed 80 service providers to welcome international visitors to Phu Quoc, including 19 accommodation establishments with more than 7,800 rooms, five travel agencies, and seven amusement parks.
The organisation of channels and routes to serve international guests is expected to have three main routes from Phu Quoc Airport to accommodation areas, at a distance of 10 to 30km. For attractions, in addition to the amusement parks in the accommodation, international guests can also visit the amusement parks of VinGroup and SunGroup and the islands in southern region of An Thoi. Visitors stay in separate zones with specific time slots for only international visitors.
The pilot plan to welcome international guests to Phu Quoc of Kien Giang Province specifies the process and standards for welcoming international guests; plans to handle arising situations; media plan for the event; developing a training plan for employees, staff of service providers on safety measures to welcome guests, service processes, application of information technology in welcoming guests.
Affirming that the opening of Phu Quoc is the opening of Vietnam’s tourism and the success of Phu Quoc is the success of Vietnam’s tourism, Director of the market department at the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Dinh Ngoc Duc proposed to build brand identity and messages for this programme.
It is necessary to promote domestic and foreign communication, especially on international media channels, Vietnamese diplomatic missions abroad, foreign diplomatic missions in Vietnam, and foreign partners. Specifically, a programme with the title “Roam Phu Quoc” was proposed for launch, aimed at the target markets of Vietnam are Northeast Asia, Europe, America and Oceania.
Concluding the conference, Deputy Minister Doan Van Viet noted that Phu Quoc and Kien Giang must be more proactive with arising situations and have specific handling plans to ensure a safe and effective reopening.
Highly agreeing with the direction of Deputy Minister Doan Van Viet and the comments of the leaders of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Vice Chairman of the Kien Giang Provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Luu Trung affirmed that the province would continue to closely coordinate with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and related ministries and branches to successfully implement the pilot plan to welcome international visitors to Phu Quoc. Kien Giang would be more drastic in disease control, get ready and have the most favourable policies to implement the plan, he added.
