Over 100 Chinese tourists on board a Vietnam Airlines flight arrived in Phu Quoc, a popular island destination off southern Vietnam, on Tuesday morning, making them the first Chinese tour group, from China’s Jilin Province, to travel to the Vietnamese island post-pandemic.

The Chinese tourist group will stay in Phu Quoc City, off Kien Giang Province, for five days and four nights and will visit some tourist attractions, such as the VinWonders Theme Park, Vinpearl Safari Phu Quoc, Grand World Phu Quoc, a local night market, and take cable car rides to explore Hon Thom in the city’s An Thoi Ward.

They will also visit other famous landmarks and historical relic sites to learn more about the local culture and daily life.

Huynh Quang Hung, chairman of the Phu Quoc administration, said that international flights to Phu Quoc encountered many obstacles after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Authorities have adopted various measures to help the island’s tourism sector recover and make headway since last year.

International visitors now can book air services between Phu Quoc and five countries and territories including Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, and China, the chairman said.

He added that the arrival of the Chinese tourists mentioned above is upbeat news for the local tourism sector.

“We asked local authorities to work closely with tour operators and tourism service providers to offer special deals to woo more international guests,” Hung elaborated.

In addition, the city’s administration is working with the Phu Quoc International Airport operator and others in Vietnam to introduce more incentives to international visitors.

During the pre-pandemic period in 2019, Kien Giang welcomed over 105,000 Chinese tourists.

The impact of the global health crisis then sent the number of Chinese visitors to this Mekong Delta province down to some 22,000 arrivals between 2020 and 2022.

The province has served close to 10,000 Chinese tourist arrivals so far this year.

China, which used to be the largest source of tourists in Southeast Asia before the pandemic hit, reopened its borders on January 8 this year after almost three years of sticking to its zero-COVID policy. 

On February 16, China announced the first batch of 20 countries and territories, excluding Vietnam, where travel agencies were allowed to pilot the resumption of group tours for Chinese citizens.

Around one month later, the Chinese government launched the second phase of its pilot program on resuming outbound group tours.

Accordingly, it announced a list of 20 more nations and regions, including Vietnam, to which outbound group tours could be conducted starting from March 15, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

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