Old Phu Quoc airport redevelopment, the expansion of the current airport, the new urban area to support the APEC meeting, the ambitious Phu Quoc Metro, and hundreds of empty cookie-cutter shophouses and villas in fake European new urban areas.
Phu Quoc is the largest island in Vietnam, covering an area of about 574 sq km (similar in size to Phuket in Thailand). Over the last decade, Phu Quoc has gone from being marketed as the Paradise Pearl Island to becoming an island of theme parks, mega resorts, and European-themed urban areas. The scale of development here is unlike any other island in Southeast Asia.
I previously visited Phu Quoc in 2021 while I was living in Vietnam during the pandemic. Vietnam had no international commercial flights for over a year when I visited Phu Quoc, but domestic tourism was still operating. I arrived in Phu Quoc when some of the largest projects were being finished, and it was surreal to see these giant construction sites with very few visitors to the island.
I said I would return in five years to see how things were going, so I came back to Phu Quoc in January 2026.
2021 was a grim time to visit the island, and I wondered if there would ever be enough tourists to fill the rooms that were being built. Now in 2026, Phu Quoc has broken its own tourism records. The week before I arrived, Phu Quoc received 46 international flights, which was the largest number ever recorded in a single day.
I have never seen so many tourists in Phu Quoc, but they are not evenly distributed. There are still hundreds of empty shophouses and villas, while more still are being built.
There is so much going on in Phu Quoc that I didn’t get time to see everything. For this post, I will list everything like Lonely Planet does, starting with the main city and then working my way geographically from north to south.
Duong Dong
Duong Dong is the main town of Phu Quoc, and it is where I usually stay when I visit. There is a fishing fleet here, and you can find street food like in any other normal town in Vietnam.
There are hotels in the town, but most visitors stay near the beaches. Duong Dong is in the middle of the west coast (where most of the beaches are), so it’s a convenient place to rent a motorbike and visit different parts of the island.
One of the main tourist attractions in Duong Dong is the night market. It was announced that the night market would be suspended, so I visited it a month before it closed.
One of the things that intrigues me about Duong Dong is that the old airport is in the town. I keep a list of defunct airports in Southeast Asia, and old Duong Dong Airport is one of the easiest to walk to from the town centre (similar to the walkability of old Nha Trang Airport).
The growth of Phu Quoc can be marked from when the new Phu Quoc airport opened in 2012.
There is a plan to redevelop the airport site into a new urban area.
The airport remains undeveloped, and the runway serves as a public road.
There is also a plan to turn the eastern end of the runway into a public square.
A statue of Ho Chi Minh has been installed, but the area surrounding the square has not been landscaped.
Northwest Phu Quoc
The northwest of Phu Quoc is dominated by the Vingroup properties, which is collectively called Phu Quoc United Center. This area includes a fake Venice, a knock-off Disney, a zoo, more faux European apartments and shophouses, a casino, a golf course, and resort villas.
Grand World Phu Quoc
The centre of activity in United Center is Grand World Phu Quoc.
Grand World is built around a lagoon surrounded by colourful shophouses.
Grand World is loosely modelled on Venice, with Venetian-style gondolas plying the waterways.
I was here in 2021, and I was the only visitor among the workers who were putting the finishing touches to the area. Many of the shophouses now have businesses, but it is not a bustling urban area.
There are no name brands here, apart from Highlands (a Vietnamese cafe chain) and Lotteria (a Korean fast food chain that is everywhere in Vietnam).
The main architectural landmark is the Teddy Bear Museum.
Grand World feels like a theme park, but it’s a public area with no admission fees. It needs normal shops and people living there full-time for it to make it feel more alive, otherwise it will continue to be this place that is contingent on tourists to keep it alive.
One section of Grand World that might have promise is this area of medium-density apartment blocks.
This is being referred to as the French Architecture Precinct.
None of the street-level shops are occupied, and I couldn’t see any signs of life in the apartments.
Building shophouses and apartments where there is no demand will be a recurring theme in this report.
There are some hotels in this area that have opened.
There is a beach at Grand World, but only one section is fully public.
Most of the beach area is reserved for the resorts that are built on the seafront.
The main problem with Phu Quoc beaches is that there are no great seafront promenades, which is a theme I will return to later in this article.
VinWonders Phu Quoc
North of the Venice area is this area with English Tudor-style (or German half-timbered) shophouses. These shops were completed when I visited in 2021, but most of these shops are still unoccupied. Their main purpose is to serve as an elaborate prop for the VinWonders theme park.
VinWonders looks like a cross between Disney and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. This was also complete in 2021, but unlike my 2021 visit, there were many people here in 2026.
There were enough people here for Starbucks to feel confident opening a branch here.
Long Beach
Long Beach is the original beach resort area of Phu Quoc. The beach starts at Duong Dong town and continues for about 20 km to the southern end of the island.
There are some sections that still retain the laid-back vibe that Phu Quoc was known for.
Long Beach extends south of the airport, but for this report, I refer to Long Beach as the section between Duong Dong and the airport.
The thing that annoys me the most about Long Beach is that there is no public walkway along the beach. Hotels front the beach, so you have to look for an alley in between properties to access the beach.
On some sections of the beach, there are no obvious places to get to and from the main road. I tried to walk through a resort to get back to the main road, but I was stopped by security.
There was an article on a local news site about how you can no longer see the sea in Phu Quoc. This is something I think about when I walk along the beach promenades of Nha Trang and Da Nang. These beach cities of Vietnam have an uninterrupted view of the beachfront from the city centre.
There are a few access roads, but they are badly landscaped. They should make some clearly defined access paths, perhaps with an archway with numbered gates.
Another problem with Long Beach is that it’s a skinny beach, so there is not a lot of public space between the sea and the hotel properties. There are some sections of beach where there is not 50 metres between the edge of the sea and the hotel property.
The main road that follows the beach is Tran Hung Dao. This road was being renovated with new trees and new pavement when I was here in 2021. There was no traffic, and it felt like a bleak time for the shops along this road.
Returning here in 2026, I couldn’t believe much traffic there was.
The trees were just freshly transplanted sticks in 2021, so this street will look better when the trees have grown out.
Another reason I prefer Long Beach is that there is still an element of regular Vietnam here with local shops and vendors.
Long Beach (South)
These are some of the main projects that are on Long Beach south of the airport. This area is flatter than the old resort area, and the land has been divided up into zones that have been allocated to different developers.
Sonasea Villas & Resort Complex
Sonasea Villas & Resort Complex by CEO Group comprises some international resorts and new urban areas that have been developed by the group.
One of the urban areas is the Sonasea Paris Villas project. This area comprises 318 identical villas, and every street has the same coloured villas.
This was completed when I visited in 2021, so I was curious to see if anyone was living here by now. Most of the villas are empty.
Some of the villas on the outer roads have been turned into hotels, and there are a few cafes here and there.
In the middle of the Sonasea area is the Sonasea Shopping Center. This is a pedestrian street lined with shophouses with a night market in the middle. I stayed on this street in 2021, and it was dead. There are now more stalls here for the night market, though I didn’t go to the market on this trip.
There are more restaurants here than the last time I visited, with restaurants representing the lands where tourists are coming from.
Another sign of life is the number of parked motorbikes behind the shopping centre.
From the shopping street, there is a dedicated walkway between resorts to the beach.
The beach here is wider than in the northern half of Long Beach. This is technically Long Beach, but on the map, it is Sonasea Public Beach.
Unlike the old Long Beach area, this section has a long public beach walk.
Phu Quoc Marina
South of the Sonasea area is Phu Quoc Marina by BIM Group. This is a similar project to SonaSea in that the land is divided into themed zones.
The Phu Quoc Marina development by BIM Group comprises 155ha with over 1km of coastline. The area is split into themed sections, with the InterContinental Hotel in the middle of the beachfront.
I visited two of the sections of Phu Quoc Marina: Phu Quoc Waterfront and Marina Square.
Phu Quoc Waterfront
Phu Quoc Waterfront continues the same playbook that is favoured by developers in Vietnam, by mass-producing identical buildings. The Waterfront development features light green Mediterraneanesque shophouses.
The Waterfront area is all pedestrianised, and it is built with a car park under the entire structure.
Instead of building a logical street grid, the project is divided up into zones (Lotus Village, Coconut Village, Mango Village, etc)
This project had just opened when I visited in 2021. The combination of empty shops and no international visitors made it feel like I was on a movie set.
There are now numerous small hotels in this area, which can be seen on Google Maps.
More shops and restaurants have opened, but there is no buzz here like Trang Hung Dao Road on Long Beach.
One of the things that I mentioned on my last visit was these window shutters. Most of the shutters are closed, so the rooms are going to be in darkness on this tropical island.
The buildings would be improved if the properties removed the shutters. Another improvement is when individual properties start adding their own greenery.
Most of the shophouses are unoccupied and remain as empty shells.
A new addition is this night market area.
If you were wondering where the waterfront is, the Waterfront is next to the beach.
Next to the beach is the Sailing Club, which is a well-known beach bar in Vietnam. I go to their branches in Nha Trang and Mui Ne, so I was glad to see they were doing well here. This was the most lively business in the Waterfront area.
Marina Square
Inland of the beach and behind Regent Phu Quoc is the Marina Square project. While the Waterfront project is near the water, Marina Square is not anywhere near a Marina.
The Marina Square architectural style looks like an old European city (or at least the rebuilt post-war old towns in Europe).
This intersection is trying to emulate Oktogon in Budapest.
Marina Square is similar to Waterfront in that it has identical buildings with colour-coded areas.
This was practically finished when I visited in 2021, but not much has changed since my last visit. There were still more construction workers than tourists here.
Many of the shops had “For Rent” signs.
The shops are still empty shells.
A few of the buildings have been converted into hotels, and they offer a glimpse of what the precinct might look like when they are opened. The added greenery makes the walkways look more lived-in.
Meyhomes Capital Phu Quoc
At the southern end of Long Beach is the Meyhomes Capital project. This is a work in progress, but one of the main sections is open for business.
Like almost every other project I visited on this trip, there are hundreds of unoccupied shophouses.
At least Meyhomes has opted for a modern look instead of creating a fake European town.
There are a few cafes and restaurants, and this Cong Caphe was the only domestic brand I saw here.
There is one street with an unusual amount of green coverage. These trees look bigger than the trees on other streets, even though they are in the same project site. With the bikes and greenery, it looks more lived-in than any other street.
I continued driving further south and passed more construction sites within the Meyhomes area. This is the great mystery of Phu Quoc, in that they keep building more shophouses even though there is no demand for them.
Southern Phu Quoc
Southern Phu Quoc is dominated by the Sunworld projects. I ended up running out of daylight hours by the time I got to the southern end, so I only visited the Sunworld properties.
Sun Grand City New An Thoi
An Thoi is a fishing town at the southern tip of Phu Quoc. New An Thoi (or Sun Grand City New An Thoi to use its full name) is the very opposite of what you would think a Vietnamese fishing town would look like.
Sun Grand City New An Thoi is another new urban area that has been fashioned on a non-specific European city.
The website describes it as being “embellished from famous highlights of the world’s richest Mediterranean region”.
It’s the same story here as with the rest of the Euro-inspired urban developments – lots of empty shophouses.
It will look better when more shops are open, but where are all the shop owners and customers coming from?
Like the other places, they will be improved when the newness has worn off, and it starts looking more lived-in.
Sun Premier Village Primavera
After New An Thoi is Sun Premier Village Primavera. This area is also referred to as Sunset Town and Mediterranean Town.
I visited this site in 2021, and the apartment towers were still under construction at that point. This precinct is carved into a hillside that overlooks the sea. The apartment towers are on top of the hill, making them look even taller than they are.
Like Vingroup in the north with its Venetian theme, Sun Group has gone with an Amalfi theme in the south. There were more shops open here than in the other Euro projects I visited in Phu Quoc.
The streets in this area are named after Italian places (Taormina, Milan, Positano, Amalfi, Venice), and there are stairs between the hilly streets.
I have been complaining that the other places look too new and not lived in, so Sun Group have tried to speed up the aging process with some painted-on peeling plaster revealing fake bricks.
Part of the reason why there are more people here is the cable car to Hon Thom. Vietnam is the cable car champion of Southeast Asia, and Sun Group is the cable car king of Vietnam.
This cable car is the world’s longest non-stop three-rope cable car.
Sun Group found viral success with the Golden Bridge in Da Nang, so they have tried to replicate that with the Kiss Bridge. There is an entrance fee here, but at this point, I was done for the day, so I didn’t go. It’s built for the Gram (and other social media platforms), so here are some Instagram images to give you an idea of the bridge.
This precinct includes a tower that looks like it is supposed to be St Mark’s Campanile.
APEC Conference Area
APEC 2027 is being held in Phu Quoc, and a new urban area is being built to host the meeting. The area is a work in progress, but you can see it from the Sunworld area.
I wasn’t 100% sure where it was because there was no trace of it on Google Maps. It is being built on reclaimed land, and Google has not updated its satellite image yet (as of March 2026).
APEC is set to meet in late 2027 (the date is not set yet), so there is some urgency in getting this precinct finished. The project includes an $830M conference center, offices, and hotels.
The beach shown in this photo (Bai Dat Do) will be transformed into a “hotel city“, with two new hotels to be completed in time for APEC.
It was late in the day by the time I was near the APEC site, so I didn’t go to Bai Dat Do. I regret not going now, as I would have liked to see what it was like before it becomes “hotel city”.
Airport expansion
To support the APEC meeting (and the growing number of tourists), Phu Quoc International Airport is being expanded by Sun Group.
I got the ferry to and from Phu Quoc on this trip, so I got the bus to the airport to have a look around.
The terminal was overflowing with passengers, which was in stark contrast to the last time I was here during the pandemic.
I love Astana, but I was glad not to be in this queue.
The new terminal is being built next to the current terminal. None of the news articles mentions it, but it would most likely become the international terminal, while the current terminal would be the domestic terminal.
A second runway is also being built, which I saw construction for when driving on the other side. This will make Phu Quoc a bigger airport than Bali, which has one runway and is limited by geography from building a second runway.
The ambitious Phu Quoc Metro project
As if the plan to build a conference centre and hotel city for APEC and a new airport terminal by the end of 2027 wasn’t ambitious enough, Phu Quoc is also planning to build a metro line to connect the airport to the APEC area.
The Phu Quoc Metro will be 17.7 kilometres with 6 stations. A ground-breaking ceremony was held on the 19th of December 2025, which was 3 weeks before I visited.
The plan is to have the line ready by the second quarter of 2027, in time for the 2027 APEC Summit. Considering that Line 1 of the HCMC Metro took 12 years to build, and Line 2A of the Hanoi Metro took 10 years to build, this would be an incredible feat to build the line in less than 2 years.
A cheaper solution would be to build a BRT to the APEC area. The road to the south is wide enough to convert two lanes into a bus lane.
Future Phu Quoc updates
Under normal circumstances, I probably would have come back again in another five years to see what is happening. If the metro and airport are built on time before APEC, then I will come back and have another look. I also need to revisit the East Coast and visit some other projects that I missed.
I was hoping that this trip was going to be via Kampot in Cambodia. There has been talk of a ferry between Kampot and Phu Quoc, which was where I was before going to Phu Quoc. If it is operational on my next trip, I will go that way.
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