Phu Quy Island: More than just a pearl in the middle of the sea

Competition “closer” to the mainland

As if to make up for the delay with the 50th Anniversary of Phu Quy Island Liberation Day (April 27, 1975 - April 27, 2025), 3 days later, on April 30, according to information from Phu Quy Port Management Board, tourists from all over boarded the ship to the island with the number ending in the late afternoon of nearly 2,300 guests, although the grand events on the mainland had not ended. On May 1, the tide at Phan Thiet port was low, preventing the Trung Trac ship with a capacity of about 600 guests from leaving the port, but by late afternoon, 1,640 guests had arrived on the island. During the next 3 days off, nearly 2,000 more guests came to the island to admire the beauty of the ocean during what is considered the most peaceful and brilliant season of the year. In the past few days, there have been 3 high-speed passenger boats, with 5 trips to the island and 5 trips to the mainland every day, but on the 2 main holidays, many tourists could not get to the island because they were sold out and because of the tide. On May 2, many other tourists had the opportunity to buy tickets to get to the island.

Speedboat takes tourists and locals to Phu Quy

Tourists arrive in Phu Quy by speedboat. Photo: N.Lan

This event marks the attraction of Phu Quy island tourism and thereby also opens a competitive stage for means of transport to meet the requirements that people and tourists desire. In fact, in recent years, passenger boats to Phu Quy island that take 4-6 hours have been gradually replaced by faster and more convenient passenger boats. Notably, in 2023, with the forecast of a sudden increase in the number of passengers, transport businesses have calculated and added 2 more high-speed passenger boats running on the Phan Thiet - Phu Quy route and vice versa. In total, at that time, the Phan Thiet - Phu Quy transport route had 6 passenger boats, with different speeds and different amenities. But that year, 6 passenger boats operated 2,132 trips, arriving at 2 terminals and transporting 437,738 passengers. Eight cargo ships and a number of cargo ships from other localities were hired to transport construction materials, supplies, and essential necessities to serve the islanders with a total output of nearly 170,000 tons.

High-speed boat arrives at Phu Quy port

Cargo ship to Phu Quy

By 2024, although there were no outstanding events, visitors to Binh Thuan still chose Phu Quy Island and ships transported over 400,000 passengers and over 190,000 tons of goods of all kinds. And up to this point, slower ships have found other routes, the Phan Thiet - Phu Quy route and vice versa only has 3 high-speed ships with a travel time of just over 2 - 2.5 hours, so the need to travel between the mainland and the island has been very convenient. Thanks to creating competition to shorten travel time, Phu Quy has had its first attraction with a variety of visitors, including international visitors to explore the beautiful and strange landscapes, historical and cultural relics, customs, and people on the island, which is likened to a pearl in the middle of the sea.

A corner of Hon Tranh Phu Quy

Long Hai beach seen from Cao Cat mountain. Photo: N.Lan

Red Island Long Hai, Phu Quy

A corner of Ganh Hang, Phu Quy

Have a cohesive community

On this holiday, with the number of visitors from the island to the mainland as low as April 30 with 575 passengers, May 1 with 480 passengers, it shows that visitors to the island do not just stay for 1-2 days. That is the reason why 68 hotels, motels and 100 homestays on the island that have appeared recently are all operating well. It is worth noting that no matter how many visitors suddenly come, there will be no shortage of visitors because accommodation at local homes is available. Food, drinks, means of transportation, places to play, relax, and explore according to the needs and desires of visitors, the islanders can all meet. That is the reality that happened in 2023, at peak times, visitors accounted for 1/3 of the island's population. And this time of year is the same. Almost the entire island participates in tourism in all stages and services in a harmonious manner, and from there the overall income of the whole village and hamlet also increases. Up to now, the poverty rate on the island is only 21 households/69 people, accounting for 0.31% of the population.

Tourists visit aquaculture cages and enjoy Mui Ne seafood specialties

The flexible response from the spirit of community solidarity above is also easy to explain when living together in the middle of the sea, having to deal with unexpected events. Therefore, talking about Phu Quy means talking about many creative business and production connection models that cannot be found on the mainland. Such as the model of catching and purchasing seafood at sea, both reducing costs and supporting each other at sea, especially on the island where there are many boats that are not strong enough to go out to sea alone but have surplus. The latest statistics show that Phu Quy currently has 1,735 boats, but of which only 594 have a capacity of over 90CV, including 130 boats for seafood purchasing and processing services. However, the average annual output of all kinds of fresh seafood is over 32,000 tons. In 2024 alone, it will reach over 36,000 tons, an increase of 257% over the same period in 2005.

Marine logistics service vessel in Phu Quy

Fishing vessels and marine logistics services in Phu Quy

The reason is that Phu Quy fishermen mostly fish in the Truong Sa sea area, where seafood resources are abundant but at the same time it is a hot spot where strange ships always encroach. Therefore, each time they go out to sea, Phu Quy fishermen go in groups of about 10 boats, allocating fishing areas reasonably to support each other in case of incidents at sea, and also act as a mobile flagpole to mark the sovereignty of the islands. Therefore, the spirit of connecting as one in the middle of the ocean of the islanders always shines through time.

Offshore fishing boats in Phu Quy

This is also evident in the process of building new rural areas in Phu Quy. Now, more than 90% of the roads on the island have been asphalted, concreted, and cemented, including short roads of only 20-30 m into the hamlets, making anyone who sets foot on the island feel the spaciousness. Few people know that these short roads are the beginning of the solidarity and unity that the islanders have carried out long before participating in building new rural areas. With the support of the State in building infrastructure, plus the advantage of a small area, with only 3 communes, Phu Quy island has met all the criteria and become the first district in Binh Thuan province to reach the new rural finish line in 2015.

Traffic invested in asphalting in Phu Quy

Traffic routes around Phu Quy Island

Trieu Duong Cultural Village, Tam Thanh Commune, Phu Quy

Over the past 10 years, Phu Quy has continued to invest in building an advanced new countryside, demonstrated through the basic technical infrastructure for socio-economic development on the island with a total value of thousands of billions of VND. Practical infrastructure affecting people's lives is guaranteed. Notably, electricity, from being only available for a limited time, in recent years, the island has had electricity 24/24 hours, thanks to Phu Quy Electricity successfully operating a model combining 3 sources of electricity: diesel - wind - solar with a total capacity of 16.68 MW. With the increasing number of tourists coming to the island, the project "Increasing the capacity of D1 and D2 machines - Phu Quy Power Plant" is being implemented with a total capacity increase of 2,200 kW, expected to be put into operation in the fourth quarter of 2025. Similarly, the domestic water system on the island with a capacity of 1,590 m3/day and night, but this season, has to be supplied alternately according to each route and area on the island, so the province is also implementing a project to build freshwater reservoirs.

Phu Quy Wind Power

Freshwater reservoir

According to the leader of Phu Quy district, to achieve the standards of an advanced new rural district in the coming time, Phu Quy must solve problems such as speeding up planning, school facilities need to meet the prescribed standards, implementing legal procedures to handle waste, especially since the island already has Phu Quy Waste Treatment Plant with an incinerator capacity of 70 tons/day but is currently operating at only 35% of its designed capacity.

All of these are the foundation and launching pad for Phu Quy to continue to be built as a special economic zone in the coming time.

Ngo Quyen High School

Aquaculture using cages at sea

Marine economy is identified as a key economic sector, a breakthrough of Phu Quy and is focused on investment for rapid, strong and sustainable development, both in terms of exploitation capacity, fishing output, production, processing and aquaculture associated with tourism, trade and services.

Source: https://baobinhthuan.com.vn/dao-phu-quy-dau-chi-nhu-hon-ngoc-giua-bien-129917.html