A bridge designed for sunset viewing could be built along many coastlines. A multimedia performance venue could likewise appear in any major tourism hub. What makes visitors remember Phu Quoc is the sense that these experiences belong specifically to this island: a bridge conceived for the moment the sun sinks over its southwestern coast, and a show that turns the sea and sky themselves into part of the stage.
Developed specifically for the distinctive sunset landscape of southwestern Phu Quoc, Kiss Bridge was created with the involvement of Italian architect Marco Casamonti.
That distinction is also what Pham Trung Luong, former Deputy Director of the Institute for Tourism Development Research, stresses when discussing the role of international partners in developing tourism products on the island.
Pham Trung Luong believes the value of a tourism product lies in its ability to create a distinctive identity for the destination.
“For Phu Quoc, what matters is not how many international names are involved, but how those international capabilities are used to create products that carry the destination’s own identity,” he said.
Harnessing global creativity to create something of your own
At Sunset Town in Phu Quoc, Sun Group partnered with architect Marco Casamonti to develop Kiss Bridge and with France’s ECA2 to create the multimedia spectacular Kiss of the Sea. At first glance, it is a story of a Vietnamese developer working with internationally renowned names. But in Luong’s view, the more important question is how their expertise is put to use.
“Marco Casamonti brings an international architectural perspective, but the bridge itself was developed specifically for Phu Quoc’s southwestern sunset landscape. The same is true of Kiss of the Sea: ECA2 brings advanced performance technology, but real value is created only when that technology serves a story and an experience rooted in Phu Quoc,” he said.
Remove Kiss Bridge from its location and from the sunset that defines the experience, and the structure loses part of its meaning. Likewise, if the technology behind Kiss of the Sea were used merely to produce visual effects, the show might still be spectacular, but it would be far less likely to become a memory tied to the destination itself.
Technology and design make an idea possible. What creates identity is the choice of what story to tell, where to tell it and how.
The Kiss of the Sea show combines international performance technology with Phu Quoc’s seascape and open sky to create an experience unique to the destination.
Luong describes this as the difference between “importing a product” and “absorbing creative capability.” Phu Quoc, he argues, can learn from global technology, design thinking and operational expertise. Simply transplanting a model that has succeeded elsewhere, however, is unlikely to create a lasting competitive advantage.
“What we need is not to buy a finished product and bring it here, but to use the world’s best knowledge to create a product of our own,” he said.
This perspective also offers a more meaningful benchmark for tourism developments: once the initial visual impact wears off, does the experience still make visitors feel that they are in Vietnam, and specifically in Phu Quoc?
As Luong puts it: “International standards create quality, but identity creates differentiation — and it is differentiation that ultimately creates a destination’s position.”
When Vietnamese identity extends beyond individual landmarks
The question of identity, Luong argues, should not stop with a single landmark or performance.
He points to the introduction of Vietnamese puppetry in Phu Quoc as one way of weaving culture more deeply into the tourism experience. Visitors do not simply watch a puppet show; they can also engage with the artists and discover the stories behind the art form. In November, the Pearl Island is also expected to host the 2026 International Puppetry Festival, bringing together distinctive puppetry traditions and performances from around the world.
AOI Theatre will serve as a venue for the 2026 International Puppetry Festival.
Luong also sees untapped potential in products long associated with the island, including fish sauce, pepper, rose myrtle wine, pearls and seafood.
A visit to a traditional fish sauce barrel house, for example, can tell a story about a local craft, the people behind it and the way one of the island’s signature products is made. In that context, culture is no longer reduced to decorative motifs or symbolic references. It becomes something visitors can encounter, learn about and carry with them as part of their memory of the destination.
The search for a distinctive language for Phu Quoc is now being pursued on a larger scale as the island prepares infrastructure for APEC 2027.
Sun Group is working with international consultants, including US-based SOM, on the development of a Convention and Exhibition Centre and a Multi-Purpose Performance Centre. Design concepts unveiled for the two buildings draw on images of ocean waves, the Vietnamese origin legend of the “Descendants of the Dragon and Fairy,” and the pairing of circular and square forms — a reference to the traditional Vietnamese cosmological concept of “round heaven, square earth.”
The roof of the APEC Convention and Exhibition Centre draws inspiration from ocean waves.
For buildings intended to welcome international guests, the challenge is to translate those ideas into a convincing architectural experience rather than simply attaching a cultural explanation to the structures.
Visitors to Phu Quoc should encounter spaces that operate to international standards while still giving them a clear sense that they are somewhere with a landscape, history and story of its own.
That principle runs through Kiss Bridge and Kiss of the Sea and continues in the projects now taking shape for APEC 2027: drawing on global knowledge and creative capability to develop experiences that originate in Phu Quoc itself.
As Luong concludes, it is only when the island can tell its own story through those capabilities that it can create products that are “international in stature, yet impossible to confuse with those of any other destination.
