TRAVEL IN BRIEF 15/6 | Look At Vietnam

TRAVEL IN BRIEF 15/6

June 16, 2012

Resort earns second Agoda award
The five-star Furama Resort Da Nang was awarded the Agoda Gold Circle Award on Monday. It’s the second time in a row that the resort has won the award, which was introduced in 2009 by the worldwide travel bookings company Agoda.
The Da Nang-based luxury resort was among 381 hotels worldwide to receive the award.
Da Nang holds tour promotion

Photo: Internet

The tourism promotion centre of the central city of Da Nang is holding a nine-day tourism promotion programme during June 22-30 at East Sea Park and My Khe Beach, featuring street music, folk music performances, bar tender contest, triathlon race, swimming competitions and beach football.
My Khe will also host parasailing and painting contests for children. During the programme, the city’s travel agencies will also promote their tours around the city as well as the nearby cities of Hoi An and Hue.
Phu Quoc named eco-tourism centre
Kien Giang Province’s tourism development strategy for 2011-20 seeks to develop Phu Quoc Island into an eco-tourism centre.
The 574sq.km island is set to welcome 1-1.2 million visitors per year by 2015, with foreign tourists accounting for 35 per cent, and earn US$209 million from it.
The island, which offers exploration, ecological, and cultural tourism, is hoping to attract travellers from markets like Northeast Asia, North America, Western Europe, and ASEAN.
Chinese tour firms spur price war
Many Chinese travel agencies bringing tourists to Viet Nam via the Huu Nghi Border Gate in Lang Son Province are forcing local
partners to lower tour prices.
The price of a four-day trip to Viet Nam has been forced down from 500 yuan to 300 yuan (VND1 million), forcing a drop in the quality of services. Local tour operators are complaining about this, saying it affects the image of Viet Nam as a tourism destination.
From the Huu Nghi Border Gate, Chinese tourists are usually taken to Ha Noi, Hai Phong, and Quang Ninh. These tours have recently been expanded to take in the central region.
China is the biggest source of tourist arrivals for Viet Nam with more than 1.4 million coming last year. Chinese tourists can enter Viet Nam using passports or laissez-passers via the inland border gates in Lang Son and Lao Cai or by sea.
Agencies promote travel services
Travel agencies from Da Nang, Quang Nam and Thua Thien-Hue provinces launched a tourism promotion programme last week at the International Tourism Forum in Yaroslavl, Russia, where representatives from the central region provinces provided travel and tour information to 900 Russian travel agencies.
The Vietnamese travel agencies will continue the promotion programme at the Leisure Tourism Fair in Russia in September.
New resort to open in Da Nang City
The international standard InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort is set to open its doors to the public this weekend.
Featuring 200 rooms, the resort is situated on an area of 250ha at 500m above sea level on Son Tra peninsula in Da Nang City.
The resort’s managing board is also offering cuisine parties every night to serve tourists during the summer holidays.
VNN/VNS

New hotel development tendency: owned by Vietnamese, managed by foreigners | Look At Vietnam

New hotel development tendency: owned by Vietnamese, managed by foreigners

April 17, 2012

LookAtVietnam – A lot of well-known big hotels in Vietnam have changed
hands recently. However, they would not change their names.

A real estate expert said that he does not think Daewoo hotel would change its
name after it has a new owner, because Daewoo is a well-known strong brand in
Hanoi. The value of the merger & acquisition deal has not been revealed, but he
is sure the Vietnamese new owner had to pay for the brand as well. Besides, the
experts think it would be not a wise move if the new owner uses another name,
because this means that he would have to start the business from the very
beginning.
In most of the hotel and resort transfer deals made recently, the old brands
developed by the previous owners have been retained in accordance with the
provisions on branding which have not been made public.
BRG bought the Hilton Hotel several years ago, but the name “Hilton” still has
been associated with the hotel after it fell into the hand of the new owner.
Sovico has bought all the stakes of Furama Resort Da Nang, but it has not
intended to change its name. Similarly, Victoria, the name of the chain of
hotels and resorts, has been maintained by Thien Tourism Company after it bought
from Hong Kong’s EEM Victoria.
The expert said that the value of the material facilities of the hotels could
not be as high as the value of the brand. Meanwhile, Vietnamese enterprises now
still cannot develop new brands for their hotels. Especially, many of the new
owners do not have experience in the hotel management field; therefore, it would
not be an easy task to develop the hotels under the new names.
Besides, the foreign previous owners might have set up strict requirements in
the transfer deals to be sure that their names would not be influenced. Most of
the new investors have been keeping the same staff, especially the high ranking
management posts held by foreigners.
Analysts have commented that Vietnamese businessmen have made good bargains when
buying back the hotels which have been operating for many years and bringing
stable source of income. They believe that the businessmen would be able to
recover the investment capital just after 9 or 10 more years.
It’s easier built than managed
The strong development of hotels and resorts recently in Vietnam has caught the
attention of many management companies. A series of well-known hotel management
groups in the world have been present in Vietnam, including Six Senses, Accor or
Marriott.
To Nhu Tung, Director of a four star hotel, said that most of the hotels and
resorts belonging to Vietnamese businessmen, have still been managed by
managers. It is because Vietnamese people still lack the management skills.
There are very few 100 percent Vietnamese owned hotel management companies,
while most of them are managing the hotels built by their parent groups.
Tung’s resort has also been managed by a foreign company, even though the resort
owner has to spend a big sum of money to hire the manager.
In Vietnam, Accord Group with Sofitel and Novotel brands is managing more than
20 hotels. Meanwhile, Six Senses Resorts and Spas, which has been in Vietnam not
for a long time, is managing the big resorts in Nha Trang, Con Dao, Da Lat and
Phu Quoc island.
Ninh Van Bay, a Vietnamese tourism real estate firm also signed a contract with
the brand on the management of a resort in Khanh Hoa province. Sixsense Ninh Van
Bay, the high grade resort with 58 villas has become famous. The firm has
continued cooperating with the brand in the Six Senses Saigon River project.
Not only managing 4-5 star hotels, the brands have also reached out to three
star hotels as well. Accord, after tens of years focusing to develop Novotel
brand (4 star) and Sofitel (5 star), has decided to bring Pullman (5 star),
Mercure (3 star) and Ibis (3 star) to Vietnam through franchising contracts.
Duy Anh