Happy and worried when Phan Thiet is crowded with tourists

Not just during holidays or weekends, now the seaside tourist city of Phan Thiet is crowded with visitors almost every day for sightseeing, relaxation, entertainment, and shopping.

It's easy to see that tourism here has been extremely vibrant in recent months, especially since the Dầu Giây - Phan Thiết and Phan Thiết - Vĩnh Hảo sections of the expressway officially opened. The sight of long lines of cars heading towards the "resort capital," most parking lots packed with passenger vehicles, and crowds of tourists flocking to Phan Thiết market... has become familiar to the locals. However, alongside this positive development, there are still many concerns in the effort to maintain the image and brand of Phan Thiết as a destination attracting a large number of tourists.

Many large-scale tourism investment projects are being implemented in Phan Thiet city (Illustrative image).

Statistics show that in the first half of 2023, Phan Thiet welcomed approximately 2.3 million visitors (a 28% increase compared to the same period last year), including 85,000 foreign visitors (a fourfold increase compared to the same period). After the opening and completion of the expressways passing through Binh Thuan province, it is estimated that the province will welcome an additional 2.4 million visitors in the third quarter (an average of 800,000 visitors per month), coinciding with the peak summer tourism season and the organization of many activities in response to the National Tourism Year 2023. Among these, Phan Thiet remains the main attraction due to several favorable factors: reduced travel time, strengths in high-end resorts and water sports and recreation, favorable weather for tourism activities, and diverse cuisine.

Thanks to convenient transportation, the number of tourists coming to Phan Thiet city for relaxation and entertainment is increasing (Illustrative image).

The influx of tourists is also raising concerns for the coastal city of Phan Thiet, specifically: ensuring security and order, providing sufficient parking, conducting sea rescue operations, maintaining environmental hygiene, ensuring food safety, managing prices, and improving service quality. In fact, since the beginning of the year, despite the Phan Thiet tourism management board's focus on rescue operations and regular inspections to ensure tourist safety, several drowning incidents have occurred, resulting in two deaths. Furthermore, local authorities acknowledge that harassment, overcharging, and commercial fraud continue to occur, negatively impacting tourist confidence.

The rich culinary scene also contributes to attracting tourists to the coastal city of Phan Thiet (Illustrative image).

The aforementioned shortcomings and limitations will be addressed by Phan Thiet city in the coming period through strengthening state management in the tourism sector. This includes actively coordinating inspections and monitoring the implementation of regulations on price listing and selling at listed prices, ensuring the quality of services and goods provided to tourists. The city will continue to direct the People's Committees of wards and communes, and the Management Boards of tourist areas to strengthen management and ensure security, order, environmental hygiene, and rescue operations at tourist attractions and coastal beaches (such as Doi Duong Beach Park, Doi Cat Bay, Hon Rom, Da Ong Dia...). Simultaneously, strict measures will be taken against cases of littering that cause environmental pollution and damage the urban landscape for both residents and tourists. Regarding food safety and hygiene, although no food poisoning cases occurred in the first half of 2023, this is an issue that requires careful attention. Especially in hot weather, accommodation establishments or restaurants need to be even more careful when preparing popular dishes, particularly raw fish salad, to serve a large number of diners at once…

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