Discovering charming Phu Yen

Phu Yen is naturally endowed with a nearly 200 km coastline and a great many gulfs, lagoons, beaches and islets. The province also has rivers, mountains, lakes, hot spa areas and valuable tangible and intangible cultural heritage sites.These are ideal conditions for the province’s tourism industry to take off. Coming to the province, visitors will have a chance to get close to nature and discover the distinctive culture of the people of Phu Yen. With its enormous potential, Phu Yen has become the first option for many domestic and foreign investors. The province has thus far attracted many big tourism investment projects. Since 2005, the Phu Yen province People’s Committee has licenced 35 tourism investment projects that cover more than 1,640 ha and cost some VND 5.1 trillion and US$ 5 billion, some of which have become operational. There is the La Perla Tashun Company’s US$ 10 million Bai Tram Hideaway Resort in Song Cau district that covers more than 89 ha. Located on a sand hill and backed by a mountain range looking out onto the open sea, Bai Tram has an arc-shaped beach that is very romantic. By 2010 the resort is to have 167 available five-star rooms with infrastructure facilities to international standards. When it is completed, Bai Tram Hideaway Resort will become an entertainment chain of beach facilities, hillside villas, French-style villas, entertainment and sports areas and a convention centre. The first phase of construction has been completed and some deluxe suites are being used under test conditions. The chairman of the Phu Yen province People’s Committee, Pham Ngoc Chi, said that after Bai Tram Hideaway Resort is completed, a number of other top-of-the-line resort projects are to get underway. In Tuy An district, in the city of Tuy Hoa, a US$ 4.3 billion Phu Yen hi-end tourism chain will be built that is to cover 565 ha. This will be the biggest tourism project in Vietnam. Other significant projects are ’Mini City’, a top-of the-line resort costing US$ 550 million that covers 300 ha, the US$ 35 million Long Beach Resort on 8 ha, the US$ 30 million Sao Viet Ecological Resort on over 68.4 ha, US$ 31 million Phuong Phu Gia compound chain on 8 ha, and the more than US$ 10 million Thuan Thao Resort on over 10 ha. In Song Cau district will be the US$ 5.6 million Bai Nom Ecological Resort on over 30 ha, and another associated with Long Hai Resort costing US$ 3 million over 8.2 ha. Phu Hoa and Dong Xuan districts have attracted the US$ 50 million Green Resort on over 125 ha and the Triem Duc hot spa site costing US$ 30 million over 50 ha. To effectively exploit its potential for tourism development, the Phu Yen Communist Party Committee enacted Resolution 77-KL/TU dated April 28, 2008 to confirm its determination to develop tourism. Accordingly, tourism will be turned into a spearhead economic sector with rapid and sustainable growth. The number of visitors coming to the province is expected to increase 35 percent per year from 2006-2010 and by 2010 the province is to receive around 360,000 visitors, the number of foreign visitors increasing 53 percent per year. On August 29, 2008, the Prime Minister enacted Decision 122/2008/QD-TTg to approve Phu Yen province’s socio-economic development master plan until 2020. By 2020 the province will need VND 238 trillion in investment capital to turn it into a major tourism and service centre in the region and the country, a new eastern gateway to ignite development in the Central Highlands and inter-regional development between the Central Highlands and central coastal areas. Phu Yen tourism is expected to take off with the big money investment projects. If travel agencies join hands to offer combined tour packages to destinations in Phu Yen and some outlying locations like Khanh Hoa province and Ho Chi Minh City where picturesque landscapes that are associated with romantic legends exist, Phu Yen would become a magnet for visitors in the near future. With close cooperation with other central coastal provinces and Ho Chi Minh City, Phu Yen could be part of the program ’The world heritage road over the central region’. The province’s tourism industry will have a bright future once these big investment projects get underway.