Quang Ngai Province has invested $9 million in a tourism port on the island of Ly Son hoping that more tourists will visit and help drive the local economy.

Ly Son Island has recently emerged as an offshore wonder. Photo by Minh Hoang

The 3-hectare port, which is scheduled to operate in 2018, is designed to accommodate a vessel of 2,000 deadweight tons, another of 1,000 tons and a 400-seat passenger ship, all at the same time.

The project includes a 438-meter-long and 84-meter-wide dock, a 153-meter-long quay, and a 1,000-square meter platform.

The port is expected to boost tourism and bring jobs to many of more than 2,000 people on the island, who still mostly make their living by fishing and growing garlic, Ha Hoang Viet Phuong, head of the provincial transport department, said on Wednesday at the groundbreaking ceremony.

Ly Son, a volcanic island about 30 kilometers off Quang Ngai Province, is part of the 45,300-hectare marine economic zone of the south central region.

Quang Ngai received 650,000 tourists last year, of which 15 percent picked Ly Son as their vacation destination. The province’s tourism revenue reached VND560 billion in 2015, up 18 percent from the previous year.

In the first 10 months of this year, the number of visitors to the island soared 37 percent to 150,000, compared to the same period last year.

(Source: e.Vnexpress.net)