Afternoon on August 9, the Kiên Giang Department of Tourism cooperated with the People's Committee of Phú Quốc Town (Kiên Giang) and Visit Indochina Company to organize a welcome ceremony for a Malaysian tour group to survey the tourism market and bring international tourists to the island.
The AirAsia flight number AK545 brought nearly 160 members of the Malaysian tour group to land at Phú Quốc Airport, all of whom are the largest tourism companies in Malaysia.
The delegation also included Mr. Mita - Chairman of the Golden Destination Group and members of the tourism companies operating sea tourism, MICE tourism, group tourism, and many new markets to visit and survey at the island.
Mr. Nguyễn Chí Thanh – Deputy Director of the Kiên Giang Department of Tourism said that in recent years, Malaysia is one of the 20 countries with the largest number of tourists to Phú Quốc and is considered a highly potential market. In 2023, there were 20,000 tourist arrivals, and in the first six months of this year, the number of tourists from Malaysia to Phú Quốc exceeded 14,000 and this number will increase in the latter months.
Malaysia is one of the largest markets sending tourists to Vietnam in the first six months of 2024, ranking fifth among the top 10 international tourist markets to Vietnam, with 354,000 tourist arrivals, up 9.3%.
Air Asia airline operates direct flights weekly from Kuala Lumpur to Phú Quốc since international tourism has been restored. This is an opportunity to introduce and promote tourism in Phú Quốc to the Malaysian tourist market in the near future.
Currently, the island of Phú Quốc has international routes including: South Korea; Taiwan, Hong Kong, Shanghai (China); Malaysia, Thailand…
In recent years, international tourists to Phú Quốc accounted for over 90% of tourists to Kiên Giang Province, the locality has strengthened promotion and image promotion of the island on major social media platforms with a large number of users worldwide. At the same time, the locality has also taken advantage of activities such as international conferences, seminars, and exhibitions to promote tourism in Phú Quốc to international friends, Mr. Nguyễn Chí Thanh added.
In the first seven months of 2024, Kiên Giang is expected to welcome nearly 6.7 million tourists, with total revenue of nearly 156 billion dong. Specifically, TP Phú Quốc welcomed nearly 4 million tourists (of which over 562,000 were international tourists), with total revenue of over 128 billion dong.
