Vietnam hotel openings

Near to the Nguyen Dynasty Citadel in Hue, the Imperial Garden Hotel has opened for guests. The 2-star hotel offers 37 guest rooms, a 200-seat restaurant that serves European and Asian cuisines, and two banquet rooms.

The Intercontinental Hotels Group has been named to manage the 5-star, 327-room resort hotel currently being constructed on the banks of Hanoi’s West Lake. The hotel, to be named the Intercontinental Hanoi, is expected to open by the end of 2005.

Hong Kong-based Li Lai Company has been granted permission to begin building an 18-hole golf course, 200-room hotel complex and open-air entertainment centre in the town of Mong Cai, located close to China’s southern border.

Hoi An

The 3-star Pho Hoi Riverside Resort in Hoi An offers guests 60 river, garden or countryside view guest rooms in five categories, including standard, first class, special, deluxe and Japanese.

Winvest’s proposed Ba Ria-Vung Tau resort has been given the name Saigon Atlantis Hotel, with an investment of 300 million USD. The first phase of the project will see the construction of a casino and a 5-star hotel, the second phase restaurants, a golf course and a helicopter landing area, and the final phase will see entertainment facilities, a water park, a swimming pool and an exhibition centre. The project is expected to take five years to be completed.

In August the 4-star Sandy Beach Resort in Danang soft-opened with 31 bungalows near Non Nuoc Beach, guest rooms, an outdoor reception area, a restaurant, a meeting hall, swimming pools and tennis courts. The second phase of the hotel will add villas and houses for rent, more meeting facilities and entertainment areas. The grand opening of the hotel will be held in October.

The Sao Mai Hotel in the city of Thanh Hoa is now open and offers guests 108 rooms, restaurants, a swimming pool, a conference hall, a fitness centre, retail shops and nearby attractions.

Sapa

28 rooms at the 3-star, 5-storey Sapa Hotel are now available for guests, which offer guests views of Ham Rong Mountain or nearby lake. 40 more guest rooms will be opened this December.

Ca Na Beach in Ninh Thuan saw the opening of the Vietnam Scuba Resort, which offers guests 16 guest rooms and equipment for, what else, scuba diving.

Ho Chi Minh City

The new Windsor Plaza Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 5 offers 405 superior and executive guest rooms and presidential, Windsor, plaza and executive suites with modern amenities. Located in the heart of Chinatown, the hotel’s facilities include international restaurants and cafés, complimentary shuttle services, conference and banquet facilities, a business centre, a roof-top swimming pool, and a fully-equipped gym and spa.

Vietnam Airlines report

Hanoi

Vietnam Airlines began flight services to and from Quy Nhon and Danang in June on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The existing flight between Ho Chi Minh City and Quy Nhon was increased to ten flights a week from seven. The airline is also adding a three times weekly service between Ho Chi Minh City and Melbourne to its schedule, which is available on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. In July, the airline began offering flights to Russia and Germany, including twice weekly flights from Hanoi to Moscow and Frankfurt and vice versa and once weekly flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Moscow and Frankfurt and vice versa.

Airports on the rise

Tan Son Nhat Airport   Anthony Jackson

In 2007, Phu Quoc Island will see the construction of a new airport runway and terminal in its Duong To Commune at a cost of 168 million USD to accommodate the 2 million tourists expected by 2020.

In late August, the Vietnam Civil Aviation Administration began construction on a second passenger terminal at the country’s largest airport, Tan Son Nhat International Airport, at a cost of over 200 million USD. The airport has almost reached its maximum capacity of six million passengers a year and the new terminal will allow it to serve over eight million passengers a year. When it is completed in two years, the terminal will have eight air bridges, conveyor belts, security checkpoints and cameras, automatic doors, and X-ray machines.