Furthermore, water infrastructure and waste process are inadequate to meet such growing demand. All of these have made the island overloaded in many aspects.
Surge of spontaneous homestays
From the beginning of March 2024, it takes only 2 hours and 30 minutes to travel from Phan Thiet City to Phu Quy Island by modern express boats. Such convenience in traveling between island and mainland along with growing trend in nature-based tourism have made the island increasingly become an ideal destination of tourists. According to the People’s Committee of Phu Quy District, in 2023, the island district welcomed 165,000 tourists, increasing by 2.5 times compared to the previous year.
Grasping tourists’ lodging demands, recently, a host of homestays have spontaneously been built, especially in Tam Thanh, Ngu Phung and Long Hai communes. These homestays are improvised from the locals’ houses or completely built along the coast to attract tourist.
In 2019, there were only nine homestays in the island district, in 2023, this number rose by 10 times. These homestay models develop out of control, which lacks plan and management of the local authority. This situation not only leads to oversupply but also poses risks of land and public resources abuse and encroachment, resulting in revenue loss for the budget.
In addition, many tourists staying at these homestays agreed that most locals construct them in the style of isolated guesthouses, which doesn't align with the homestay concept of living in locals’ houses, thus not fully utilizing the existing advantages of the locality. Furthermore, homestays being built densely along the coast also diminishes the primitive beauty of the island’s natural landscapes.
According to Mr. Ngo Tan Loc, the Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of the island district, the locals have invested in building homestays in an extensive and spontaneous way, making it difficult for the authoritites to control. They have also warned the residents to be cautious when investing in this model, and have instructed relevant units to review mechanisms and initiatives to develop it appropriately.
Environment alert
According the People’s Committee of the district, the problems of waste process and household water must be urgently addressed due to the large number of tourists combined with the island’s population of about 30,000 people.
For a long time, water has been seen as “white gold” because of its rare sources, and the island does not have wastewater treatment system to meet the rapid development. Currently, household water supplying to the residents is completely exploited underground. There are 4 exploiting units but they haven’t met the demand. Meanwhile, two reservoirs have been built but they aren’t connected to the wastewater treatment system.
Apart from that, the island district is also under pressure in waste process due to a huge amount of household waste. In April 2021, Phu Quy waste treatment plant was built with the hope to handle all the waste produced. However, after 3 years, the plant can’t operate at its full capacity and are facing a risk of closure due to legal issues.
“The People’s Committee of Binh Thuan Province agreed to hand over two hectares of land for constructing the plant, but only 7,000 square meters of land have been handed over. Therefore, we couldn’t build it at the planned scale, so its processing capacity does not meet the demand. There is also not enough space to bury the amount of ash and slag produced from the process,” Vice Director of Da Loc Company, the owner of the plant project, Ms. Nguyen Thi To Nu explained.
As reported, the only waste treatment plant on the island has been temporarily suspended for maintenance from 2024 until now. Currently, all the waste on the island is being collected at the plant, waiting for it to resume operation. On top of that, hundreds of thousands of tons of waste from the island district have been accumulated since 2022, before the waste treatment plant was operated, and have not been properly handled. They are currently being left opencast inside the plant, causing environmental concerns. The main reason is the lack of agreement between the waste treatment unit and the local authorities on specific pricing.
"Currently, each month the plant has to cover a loss of about VND350 million (US$14,000). In the coming time, if the land allocation for the plant's expansion is not approved and there is no place to bury the slag, then we will be forced to stop operation," she added.
In 2018, the People’s Committee of Binh Thuan Province approved the plan on development of Phu Quy Island tourism. Particularly, its objective is to transform Phu Quy into a key tourist destination of the province, leveraging its potential and advantages in coastal tourism, coupled with heritage exploration, maritime culture, and culinary experiences.
Gradually, Phu Quy will be developed as a sustainable eco-tourism destination. However, with all the mentioned issues and limitations, the province needs prompt and decisive solutions that are fundamental to ensure the proper development of the island district as expected.
