Vietnam’s airport and the airline-owning Sun Group bet on Phú Quốc resort as the next Phuket or Bali

Vietnam's tourist offer, along with visitor numbers, is growing steadily, helped partly by limited privatisation of airports and extensions to many of them, and by a drop-off in trade to neighbouring Thailand.

Now the SUN Group, the operator of the airport at Phú Quốc and elsewhere, has come up with a scheme to propel the island resort into the same league as others, like Bali in Indonesia, Phuket in Thailand and Jeju in Korea. This will be by launching a new airline, which will not compete with the existing international routes at Phú Quốc, but rather will maximise its presence in high volume domestic markets first as a launch pad to new international routes later.

Phú Quốc is well served from some countries and regions, but not others.

The new airline's fleet will grow from a projected eight aircraft by the end of 2025 to 100 by 2030, including long haul models.

The one clear advantage SUN Group has is in both horizontal and vertical integration. It controls its own supply chain in each of the sectors of air travel, accommodation and tourist facilities, while also owning a private airline for visitors with deep pockets.

This will be an intriguing experiment.

Others have gone before it in Europe and the Americas with a similar philosophy, and it has shown to be a winner.