Quang Tri (VNA) – Con Co Island in the centralprovince of Quang Tri is seeing a boom in tourist arrival since the firstvisitors set foot on the island in a tour launched two years ago.

Con Co used to welcome a few hundreds of touristannually. After the first official tour to the island district departuring fromCua Viet was opened, the tourist arrival increased significantly from nearly2,000 in 2017 to over 4,000 lastyear.

In the first seven months of this year, the islandreceived 7,000 visitors.

To boost tourism, local authorities launched a 80-seat high-speed boat tour earlier thismonth, reducing travel time from the mainland to Con Cofrom 2 hours to nearly 1 hour. The district expects to have 3 – 4 high-qualitytour packages and 2 – 3 express boats by 2020 to better serve visitors.

Infrastructure on the islandhas been much improved. The island was connected to the national grid in 2017, replacing the electricitysupply from diesel-fueled generators that was unstable and only provided in a certain period of time during theday.

Authorities have also developed several local specialties to meet touristdemands, such as fish sauce and jiaogulan tea.

Covering an areaof 2.3sq.km in the south of the Gulf of Tonkin, Con Co Island is blessed with diverse tropical marine ecosystems. Thanks to its largeforests, beautiful beaches and pristine coral reefs, the island has hugepotential for tourism development.

Primevalforests cover about 74 percent of the island, which has a variety of sandybeaches, coral reefs and igneous rocks formed from volcanic lava.

When the night falls, visitors couldstroll along coastal roads to enjoy the fresh air and peacefulatmosphere. Popular activities on the island include swimming,scuba-diving, canoeing, fishing and marine sports.

Located 17 nautical miles (about 30km)from the coast,Con Co island, which crosses the 17th parallel, is dubbed an “outpost watch” becauseof its critical location for nationaldefence. It is also known as a pivotal battlefieldduring the war against the US, and much evidence remains there of Vietnam’sultimate victory. Authorities believe that this also makes the island a greatplace to develop for tourists with a taste for history.

QuangTri has adopted incentives to encourage investors to develop tours toas well as hospitality and amusement facilities on the island, according to Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports andTourism Nguyen Van Chien. –VNA