Foreign tourists salvage New Year for Phu Quoc hotels

The rate for five-star establishments during the three-day holidays starting Saturday is 80%, according to Mustgo, a booking platform with 2,000 hotel partners in the country.

Some smaller ones with less than 500 rooms reported a 90% rate.

Mustgo’s commercial director, Dinh Thi Thu Thao, said not many domestic tourists are visiting the island due to the high airfares.

Airfares from HCMC and Hanoi to Phu Quoc for Dec. 29 and Jan. 1 cost up to VND7 million (US$289), double the normal fare.

According to data from the Vietnam Airports Corporation, nine to 12 international flights arrive in Phu Quoc daily from Kazakhstan, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Mongolia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Czechia during the period.

A spokesperson for a five-star hotel said there has been a clear increase in the number of Korean tourists thanks to the new services introduced recently by major carriers such as Korean Air, Jeju Air and Jin Air.

There are charter flights from Kazakhstan, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Statistics from Premier Village Phu Quoc show that 64% of its guests this year have been foreign tourists, a 38 percentage point increase from 2022.

The number of foreign tourists staying at the New World Phu Quoc Resort increased by 30 points.

Amid a sharp decrease in domestic tourists, luxury hotels on the island have changed their marketing strategy to target foreign visitors, especially South Korean.

A spokesperson for JW Marriott Phu Quoc said the hotel is focusing on markets such as China, South Korea and Taiwan and increasing marketing campaigns on platforms such as South Korea’s Naver and Kakao and Taiwan's Line Ads ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday in February.

In the first nine months of this year Phu Quoc received over 540,000 international visitors, three times the number in the same period last year.