Resort Investors Plan to Storm Vietnam's Beaches

[Fidel]

Hotel investors have flocked to Vietnam with plans for large-scale beachside resorts, hoping to turn the golden sands of the up-and-coming holiday destination into a tourism goldmine.

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Amid the wave of interest, industry experts caution that Vietnam will have to choose between mass tourism and a more sustainable approach that both capitalises on and preserves the country's cultural and ecological heritage.

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Recent days have seen a flurry of announcements for new luxury beach resorts which leading developers are hoping to build in Vietnam over coming years.

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Dubai-based Kingdom Hotel Investments said last week it plans to build a 65-million-dollar Raffles resort and villa complex by 2011 on China Beach, the sun-blessed rest-and-recreation spot of American wartime troops.

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In the far south, Vietnam's largest island, Phu Quoc, is drawing unprecedented interest as the government is planning to turn the sleepy, coral-fringed getaway into a what it calls an eco-aqua-tourism destination.

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Under ambitious plans, Hanoi hopes Phu Quoc, an island now best known for its fish sauce production, will draw up to three million tourists a year by 2020, rivalling Thailand's Phuket and Indonesia's Bali islands.

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High-end developers from the United States, Switzerland and Canada have recently applied to invest billions of dollars in luxury tourism complexes on the island near Cambodia, provincial officials said in recent days.

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One plan, by US-based Rockingham Asset Management, envisions a complex that would by 2015 boast a 2,000-room luxury resort with a 36-hole golf course, villas for rent and a motor racetrack, state media reported.

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More multi-million-dollar resorts are also planned near central Danang, an area boasting several UNESCO-listed world heritage sites and an international airport, and in other spots including southern Nha Trang and Vung Tau.

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"Finally people have realised that Vietnam has great potential," said Rick Mayo-Smith, founding partner of Ho Chi Minh City-based Indochina Capital, which has invested in hotels and manages 300 million dollars in property funds.

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Until recently Vietnam attracted mainly backpackers, the pioneer travellers who braved visa hassles and cheap hotels when the communist country emerged in the early 1990s from post-war poverty and political isolation.

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Since then rapid economic growth and Vietnam's efforts at closer global integration, highlighted by its World Trade Organisation entry last month, have raised the country's profile, including in the tourism sector.

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"From a PR point of view, WTO entry sends a message that Vietnam is open and welcomes investment," said Mayo-Smith, who also heads a foreign business panel on tourism. Potential investors, he said, "are really piling in."

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Dominic Scriven, another long-time resident of the city formerly called Saigon and director of the Dragon Capital investment fund, agreed that now "there's really quite a lot of enthusiasm in development of tourism."

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Vietnam hopes to cash in on the trend and boost tourist numbers to six million arrivals by 2010. Last year it drew 3.6 million visitors, a modest level against the more than 13 million who visited Thailand.

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Most visitors to Vietnam now come from Asia, helped by proximity, easier visa regulations and the rise of new budget airlines.

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South Korean visitors in recent months overtook Chinese at the top of the list, followed by Americans, Japanese, Taiwanese, Cambodians, Australians, French, Thais and Singaporeans.

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Industry groups predict rapid growth. The World Travel and Tourism Council says Vietnam is the sixth-ranked growth destination worldwide over the next decade and predicts 7.5 percent annual expansion between 2007 and 2016.

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This year Vietnam will promote itself at tourism fairs throughout the world, said VNAT official Pham Ngoc Diep.

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"It's (tourism) Vietnam's second largest foreign exchange earner after oil and gas," said Mayo-Smith. "It employs almost 10 percent of the population directly or indirectly."

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But Mayo-Smith and Scriven, both of whom have invested in eco-tourist resorts here, say Vietnam must manage the new interest carefully to avoid the cultural and environmental pitfalls of mass tourism.

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If large hotel developments "just become concrete and noise," said Scriven, "then obviously the short-term returns may be significant but the longer-term returns will be very low or possibly negative."

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Vietnam's government now recognises that sustainability, environmental protection and master-planning are critical issues, Mayo-Smith said. â?? AFP

Hotel investors have flocked to Vietnam with plans for large-scale beachside resorts, hoping to turn the golden sands of the up-and-coming holiday destination into a tourism goldmine.

.

Amid the wave of interest, industry experts caution that Vietnam will have to choose between mass tourism and a more sustainable approach that both capitalises on and preserves the country's cultural and ecological heritage.

.

Recent days have seen a flurry of announcements for new luxury beach resorts which leading developers are hoping to build in Vietnam over coming years.

.

Dubai-based Kingdom Hotel Investments said last week it plans to build a 65-million-dollar Raffles resort and villa complex by 2011 on China Beach, the sun-blessed rest-and-recreation spot of American wartime troops.

.

In the far south, Vietnam's largest island, Phu Quoc, is drawing unprecedented interest as the government is planning to turn the sleepy, coral-fringed getaway into a what it calls an eco-aqua-tourism destination.

.

Under ambitious plans, Hanoi hopes Phu Quoc, an island now best known for its fish sauce production, will draw up to three million tourists a year by 2020, rivalling Thailand's Phuket and Indonesia's Bali islands.

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Read On

[carew66]

China Beach is something else. It's fine just as it is, but time marches on eh?

[limbo]

Expected this happen sooner than now actually.

 

Good to know that Thailand is making live for expats and investments all around more difficult and other countries are opening up their borders.

[Flashermac]

Do I hear an echo, or is the report in stereo???

 

 

[Guest]

Glad Vietnam is opening up...LOS needs competition...and to wise up! However the anual battering from typoons Vietnam endures could be a problem..

[Neo]

I have been to beaches in Vietnam north and south in recent years and am not impressed. What coral hasn't been killed by wide spread dynamite and cyanide fishing is chiseled off, dyed with food coloring, and offered for sale to tourists by hawkers on the beach. So when 5 years from now they say how great it used to be before it was spoiled by development I at least can have a good laugh. I would say on average Thai beaches, though often in bad shape themselves, are less spoiled than those in Vietnam.

 

[Flashermac]

My Vietnamese colleague I've mentioned before is the son of a forestry service officer. He said to me one day, "Remember how the mountains were covered with trees?"

 

I said indeed I did, that the central highlands were beautiful.

 

He added, "They aren't covered with trees anymore." Some of the forest cover was destroyed during the war, but he said that corrupt politicians were responsible for cutting down much more of it. He said that after the communists conquered the South, they were very dogmatic for a few years. Then they gradually became just as corrupt as the officials in Thailand and the rest of the region.