Types of Sea and Island Tourism Products Preferred by Tourists

3-4 days (34%), 1-2 days (26%). International visitors usually stay in Phu Quoc for 5-10 days, accounting for 23%. Tourists staying from 11-20 days and over 20 days account for 17%, most of whom are beach vacationers. The above shows that the majority of tourists coming to Phu Quoc are purely for tourism to return to the nature of the sea and islands, while domestic visitors often stay for a short time.

b. Popular types and products of sea tourism

Normally, tourists coming to Phu Quoc tend to combine many different types of tourism (accounting for 48%) and they will stay longer if the local tourism products are rich and unique. When dividing specific types, sea tourism still accounts for the majority (34%), which also reflects the interest of tourists in forms of sea tourism. There is also a fairly high proportion of tourists with the purpose of sports exploration (12%). Cultural or research tourism is often combined with marine ecological activities as an additional experience for tourists that has not been properly exploited.

12%

34%

48%

Sightseeing and beach vacation

Sports-discovery tourism

Sightseeing tourism – Cultural tourism research

Combine many types of tourism

Chart 2: Types of island tourism products preferred by tourists

Source: Author's investigation, 2017

Currently, Phu Quoc Marine Protected Area is exploiting products such as coastal accommodation types; rare marine ecosystem areas such as coral reefs, seagrass beds, etc.

exploiting various types of marine tourism such as diving, research, surfing, fishing, boat racing, swimming.

And in Bai Bon ward - Ham Ninh commune, the coastline is located in the core and buffer zones of Phu Quoc Marine Protected Area, with a relatively dense seagrass bed. The seagrass bed here is the breeding ground for green crabs, creating a specialty product with high economic value and quality of Kien Giang province. Crabs are the main source of local income in export processing and serving tourists. Crabs are the main source of income for the majority of poor fishermen living on the island.

In addition, the local community directly participates in tourism activities such as basket boat tours to see coral and scuba diving.

Here you can build forest - sea tours, biodiversity study tours, fishing tours...

c. Tourist satisfaction with the island tourism environment and other service factors

Table 2.7: Tourist satisfaction level with the sea and island tourism environment and other service factors (%)

STT

Issues assessed	Not satisfied	Quite satisfied	Satisfied	Very satisfied
1	About personal safety	8	17	65	10
2	Local people's attitude direction	0	5	42	53
3	Traditional local cuisine	0	16	59	25
4	Quality of accommodation services	0	43	45	12
5	Food service quality	0	31	53	16
6	Souvenir shopping service and specialties	9	53	33	5
7	Road quality and means of transport convenient transportation	1	37	53	9
8	The level of diversity of tourism products island calendar	5	46	45	4

Maybe you are interested!

Traditional cultural values coastal people	2	26	64	8
10	Quality of tourism environment sea island	20	39	38	3
11	Natural wildness on the island	3	27	62	8
12	Traditional crafts	6	48	42	4
13	Professional qualities of tourism labor resources	4	37	56	3

Source: Author's investigation, 2017

The table above shows that tourists coming to Phu Quoc NKTB have felt and evaluated the outstanding contents of the destination as follows: first, the attitude of local people is highly appreciated, this is clearly shown when up to 95% of tourists feel satisfied and very satisfied; the second outstanding point is local cuisine (84%) with many fresh and delicious coastal dishes, especially Blue Crab ...; the third factor that tourists are also satisfied with is security and safety (75%), the fourth is the traditional values of the island residents (72%) through friendly behavior, honest and simple lifestyle. In addition, the natural wildness (70%) is also a strong point with beautiful natural beaches. Finally, other factors that tourists also rated as relatively satisfied are accommodation, food and transportation services.

Some factors are not well evaluated by tourists, including souvenir and specialty shopping services (up to 62% feel dissatisfied and quite satisfied). This shows the limitation in the production and processing of souvenirs with local characteristics. The quality of the island environment is also an issue that needs to be improved when tourism activities have brought about inconveniences from increasing the amount of waste polluting residential areas and the environment (59% of visitors are dissatisfied to quite satisfied).

d. Information that influences the selection of community tourism destinations

copper

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

27%

24%

15%

11%

Friends Travel agencies Brochures Internet

Travel magazine

Television Daily, R

onion

fox

Figure 2.4: Information channels influencing the choice of tourist destinations

island community in Phu Quoc

Source: Author's investigation, 2017

Through chart 2.4, it can be seen that the source of information that has the greatest influence on tourists in choosing a tourist attraction in Phu Quoc is through the introduction of friends (27%), which clearly shows that the tourist attractions in Phu Quoc are either not widely communicated or are newly exploited tourist attractions; followed by the Internet at 24%, accessed by young people; other sources of information such as magazines and newspapers take third place (26%); information sources from TV and Radio are also very important (accounting for 14%); information flows from travel agencies also have a certain contribution (accounting for 9%), which reflects that travel agencies have not really supported the tourist attractions in Phu Quoc.

e. Tourists' perceptions and trends in using products and services at community tourism sites.

In addition to tourists highly appreciating the friendly and open attitude of the people of Phu Quoc KBTB in general and the island residents in particular (accounting for 97%), the majority of tourists when asked also evaluated the types of resources and products at the KBTB.

The DLCĐ point is quite attractive (accounting for 55%). The DLCĐ point of Ham Ninh fishing village currently attracts a lot of domestic tourists, an average of about 100 visitors a day, especially on weekends and holidays there are about 500 visitors/day, this is a happy point but also leads to infrastructure and service quality not meeting the needs of tourists.

Table 2.8: Percentage of tourists using products and services at community tourism destinations on Phu Quoc island

Status

Suggested content	Tourists
1	Homestay services	80
2	Food service	95
3	Shopping for goods	86.7
4	Shipping Services	88.3
5	Guide service	51.7
6	Visit the traditional handicraft production art	41.7
7	Learn about the culture and customs of local people	81.7
8	All of the above comments	28.3

Source: Author's investigation, 2017

Tourists are very fond of staying at local people's homes (80%). Some of the most used services by domestic tourists are eating and drinking (95%), shopping (86.7%) and learning about culture and customs (81.7%). Tourists often use transportation services from coastal villagers such as boats, ships, and basket boats for sightseeing or diving (88.3%). Traditional handicraft art tours do not attract many tourists (41.7%). Tour guide services are mostly provided by travel agencies and are provided directly by tour guides (51.7%).

f. Tourists' education level, occupation and spending ability

Postgraduate

College - University

70%

Vocational high school

25%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Chart 2.5: Statistics on education level of tourists visiting Phu Quoc

Source: Author's investigation, 2017

+ Regarding educational level, 70% of tourists have college or university degrees, 25% have high school and vocational high school degrees, and 5% have post-graduate degrees. In general, the educational level of tourists to Phu Quoc is quite high.

+ Regarding occupation: The survey shows that the majority of tourists are business people in general (19%); followed by engineers, architects and students (16% and 15%); teachers, office workers and managers account for a relatively large proportion (from 11% - 13%); the rest are other groups.

Job

7% 7%

12%

16%

19%

15%

11%

13%

Office staff Sales staff Teacher

Manage

Students

Retired Engineer

Chart 2.6: Occupation of Tourists visiting community tourism sites in Phu Quoc

Source: Author's investigation, 2017

2.2.3.3. Travel company survey

Through a direct survey of 10 major tourism companies in Phu Quoc, the author wants to select important data to more clearly identify the factors that influence tourists' decisions to participate in community-based tourism activities. In addition, through the survey sample, the companies also reported the limitations of the community and the main difficulties and obstacles when participating in community-based tourism business in Phu Quoc NKTB.

All companies interviewed said that tourists come to coastal community sites for the reason of natural landscape and unique cultural features of the community, which also reflects the value of marine resources in tourism exploitation of Phu Quoc. The target group of visitors to community sites (such as Ham Ninh fishing village, Hon Thom fishing village) is mainly young people, young people who follow a group mentality and spontaneously, so it can be seen that many young people invite each other to organize their own trips (6 companies). In addition, the price and service quality factors at community sites are not highly appreciated, some service quality standards are not commensurate with the price.

Travel companies also evaluate the difficulties in the process of building and designing community tourism products in Phu Quoc according to the following criteria:

Chart 2.7: Difficulties of travel companies when designing community-based tourism products

Source: Author's investigation, 2017

From the chart above, it can be seen that 08 companies believe that the two barriers that have a major impact on the design of community-based tourism products are the lack of official information sources from the community and the limited capacity of the community in tourism activities in general. In addition, current tourism companies only spontaneously link directly with households, local authorities only play a supervisory role and have not provided much guidance or support for local tourism activities (07 companies). Other factors such as access to community points (5 companies) and barriers from the community (3 companies) do not have too much impact on the production of community-based tourism products because they can be overcome in many different ways.

2.2.4. General assessment of community tourism development activities in Phu Quoc Marine Protected Area

Although Phu Quoc NKTB has only taken the initial steps for community-based tourism activities, it can be seen that there are premises for this type of tourism to develop. However, looking back at the tourism activities during the time in the communities in Phu Quoc NKTB shows that there are many advantages but also many difficulties and challenges. Specifically as follows:

2.2.4.1. Advantages

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