Vietnam wants more luxury hotels
HANOI – The popularity of Vietnam among hotel owners and operators continues to grow.
In the World Heritage site of Halong Bay, Starwood will open the 160-room Four Points by Sheraton hotel in early 2008, while the 300-room Sheraton Halong Bay Resort is planned to open in 2010.
Halong Bay is located in northeastern part of Vietnam and consists of a cluster of 1969 limestone monolithic islands which rise from the ocean along a 120km coastline, forming a spectacular seascape of limestone pillars.
The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has asked major cities and tourism centres nationwide to allocate land for luxury hotel and resort projects.
According to VNAT statistics, Vietnam has only 90 four and five-star hotels, totalling about 15,000 rooms, accounting for nine per cent of the country’s total star-rated rooms.
The shortage of hotels in Vietnam in recent years has resulted in higher room prices. Vietnam, which hosted nearly 3.6 million foreign visitors in 2006, welcomed 1.5 million international arrivals in the first four months of 2007, a year-on-year rise of 12.5%.
The country has targeted about 5.5 million international arrivals and 25 million domestic visitors by 2010.
Ian Jarrett
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