Let the good times roll!

Located just 127 kilometres from Ho Chi Minh City, Ba Ria-Vung Tau is the closest developed coastal area to the southern hub and as a result it has become a popular weekend destination. Other factors luring tourists include a rich diversity of landscapes and over 100km of breathtaking coastline.

A new draw for Vung Tau in the near future will be the appearance of a super luxurious resort destination, named Ho Tram Strip, which is owned by Canada’s Asian Coast Development Limited (ACDL). The first of these resorts will be operated by MGM Resorts International, whose MGM Grand brand is synonymous with luxury and entertainment all over the world.

With a stellar reputation from Las Vegas to Macau, MGM Grand’s move to Vietnam is an exciting development for the whole of Southeast Asia. This is  also the country’s first large-scale integrated resort with a wide array of facilities and services.

This is also just the beginning for Ho Tram. In May, ACDL signed an agreement with Las Vegas-based gambling and hospitality company  Pinnacle Entertainment Inc to develop the second resort in this complex. In total ACDL wants to build five integrated resorts on the Ho Tram Strip transforming this into one of the most visited tourism sites not only in Vietnam but in all of Southeast Asian.

Lloyd C. Nathan, chief executive officer of ACDL, said the Ho Tram Strip would be a completely different proposition to what was being offered in Macau, Singapore or Malaysia.

“There are very few sites in the world that rival the Ho Tram Strip in terms of its natural beauty with a 2.2km beachfront location and we are confident that this location coupled with the luxury and amenities of resorts such as the MGM Grand Ho Tram will culminate in a destination that is unrivalled in the Asia Pacific,” said Nathan.

In fact, the Ho Tram Strip is the only multi-billion dollar gambling and resort project licenced and under construction in Vietnam so far. The government granted investment certificates to some resorts elsewhere but developers are still dragging their heels on them.

Nathan acknowledged that the world economic crisis was a challenge for many developers but “we weathered the storm and stood firm on our commitment to the Vietnamese government to deliver a world class integrated resort destination in Ba Ria Vung Tau.”

Currently, construction is proceeding at a fast pace. ACDL expects to open the first resort, MGM Grand Ho Tram, by 2013. This one includes a 1,100-room and five-star MGM Grand hotel, a world-class entertainment facility, restaurants, a high-tech meeting space, an exclusive VIP area, a championship golf course, as well as a variety of beach-front recreation activities.

And while ACDL is pushing the construction work at its project, the government is also improving the infrastructure system linking Ho Chi Minh City with Ba Ria-Vung Tau that will make it convenient for tourists to access the Ho Tram Strip.

In the past year, Ba Ria-Vung Tau was linked with Ho Chi Minh City by a two-lane road connection. But the government started significant work on that road over the last two years with the objective of expanding it to four lanes.

“The key for us is that as we approach the opening of the MGM Grand Ho Tram in early 2013, the drive time to our location from Ho Chi Minh City continues to shorten,” Nathan said.

Regarding air transportation, the future Long Thanh Airport is located 80 kilometres from the Ho Tram Strip site. This is anticipated as another key gateway helping to lure more visitors to Ho Tram upon completion as will the existing ferry services from Ho Chi Minh CIty to Vung Tau.