HCMC – Despite the number of vacant rooms in hotels increasing due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Kien Giang Province, where the famous tourist island of Phu Quoc is located, is still welcoming new hotels, with the southern province reporting 1,946 new hotel rooms in the past nine months.
Thus, it now has 24,600 rooms from 769 hotels, according to data from the Tourism Department of Kien Giang Province.
Although the number of rooms has increased in recent years, hoteliers in Phu Quoc Island and Kien Giang Province are facing many difficulties in doing business due to the heavy impact of Covid-19.
The room occupancy in provinces such as Kien Giang, Khanh Hoa and Quang Ninh is only at 3-5%, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Proposal on urgent solutions to support tourism businesses and workers affected by Covid-19 sent to the Prime Minister.
Kien Giang is one of the localities nationwide that is home to many high-end hotels and resorts, with many of them being located on Phu Quoc Island.
According to the Vietnam Administration of Tourism, last year, the average room occupancy across the country was 52%, down from 54% in 2018. Some localities such as Phu Quoc, Danang, Khanh Hoa and Sa Pa saw a large number of room bookings.
In another development, data from the Kien Giang Tourism Department showed that the tourist arrivals and tourism revenue in the province have decreased significantly. In September, Kien Giang attracted more than 412,000 guests, down 42.2% over the same period in 2019, of which some 209,000 stayed at hotels, down 38.8%. Phu Quoc Island welcomed a majority of the province’s tourist arrivals—more than 307,800—down 35.6% year-on-year.
Meanwhile, the total tourism revenue in September was VND514.7 billion, down 62.8%, of which Phu Quoc contributed VND400.2 billion, down 33.8%.
In the past nine months, Kien Giang welcomed more than 4.3 million tourists, down 37.5%, while the total revenue from tourism reached more than VND6,239 billion, down 56.2%.
By Dao Loan
