Vietnam sees more global hotel brands

The five-star Vinpearl Phu Quoc Resort on Phu Quoc Island. More and more hospitality brands and hotel operators are coming to the booming Viet Nam market. - VNA/VNS Photo Le Huy Hai

From 30 hotels with international brand names in 2010, the number had increased to 79 at the end of last year.

There has been a particularly big jump this year with recent announcements by Mandarin Oriental and Movenpick in HCM City and Best Western Premier in Quang Binh and Long Hai.

There have also been new brands entering the market in the last three years, including Ozo and X2 Vibe (Hội An), Hilton’s Double Tree (Ha Long, Vung Tau and Ha Noi), Four Seasons (Quang Nam and Ha Noi), Oakwood (HCM City), Glow (Da Nang), and Mai House (HCM City).

Compared to a few years ago projects of higher quality, focus on international design, trust in foreign hotel management companies and need to create a competitive advantage have all increased significantly.

Mauro Gasparotti, director of Savills Hotels Asia Pacific, said a large increase in interest among operators in the country in the last three years has resulted in the expansion of the hospitality market.

“The number of international operators is expected to grow in the coming years along with local management companies.”

Operators are launching new brands to target all kinds of clients including millennials and health-conscious travellers, he said.

Viet Nam is a promising market for them to introduce focused brands since people travelling here are largely diversified, he said.

Vietnamese investors are still new to hospitality products, but with a large amount of supply coming, there would be rapid learning for some of them and more quality assets are expected to come up, he said.

Savills expects more than 30,000 rooms to be added by the end of next year.

Viet Nam has also experienced a strong growth in condotels in the last 2 years.

It is expected that within two years condotel and second home products will account for 65 per cent of new hotel supply, and one in every four will be categorised as condotels.

A condotel is actually much more complicated than a pure hotel possessing features of both a house and a hotel, and thus requires more support in terms of management.

Most condotels are managed by their developers, and some lack experience in hotel management.

However, a few have begun to create brands and engage management companies, mostly in the case of complexes with a hotel or resort component.

The number of international tourist arrivals in Viet Nam in the first five months of this year was 6.7 million, up 27.6 per cent year-on-year, according to the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism.

Tourism revenues are estimated at VND260.2 trillion (US$11.41 billion), a year-on-year increase of 22.6 per cent.

The strong growth of the tourism sector has also given a boost to the hospitality industry.