Chinese vacancies push hotels to new markets

Vietnamese hoteliers are seeking alternative strategies to cope with the falling number of Chinese tourists due to recent tensions in the East Sea.

According to Truong Ngoc Thanh, senior PR executive of Furama Resort Danang, the resort has set its sights on a number of different markets and new solutions.

Thanh said the hotel was offering incentives to guests, such as its VietJet Air ticket promotion Travel First, Pay Later and was co-operating with the central city’s authorities to promote Danang as a MICE destination. Moreover, Furama Resort Danang has also co-operated with the local authorities to push up direct routes to high potential markets such as Korea, Japan, Malaysia and others.

“We believe our efforts will get our business through the last months of 2014 until the market improves in 2015,” Thanh told VIR, adding that the tensions between China and Vietnam had led to a decrease in Chinese and Hong Kong guests to Vietnam, but that Furama’s targets of other markets helped keep its occupancy loss to only 15 per cent, leading to a revenue drop of just $600,000 against last year.

Bob Fabiano, general manager of JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel, admitted that Vietnam-China tensions had resulted in some travelers from across Asia changing their plans and postponing or even cancelling their visits. “We are hopeful that in time this will be resolved and we will once again be a hot destination for all of our segments, from events and business travel to leisure and exploration,” Fabiano said.

He added that unfortunately hoteliers had suffered from several cancelled events from both leisure and MICE groups, as these were generally Asia Pacific attended and had a large representation of participants from China. “Hopefully we will see a resolution sometimes soon that will place us back on track to achieve the 2014 targets,” said Fabiano.

According to CBRE Vietnam, since the end months of 2013 to now, Vietnam has seen a large number of investments, both announced and implemented in the hospitality sector. In the second quarter of 2014, Hanoi’s five-star hotels posted upward performance compared to the same period in 2013. Average occupancy went up by a healthy rate of 2.3 per cent while average daily rate and revenue per available room recorded a strong increase of 9.7 per cent and 13.8 per cent respectively.

According to Richard Leech, executive director of CBRE Vietnam, on the demand side Vietnam welcomed 4.3 million international tourist arrivals in the first six months of 2014, representing an increase of 21 per cent on year. This number, however, has been dropping since May due to the China situation. “It is time to switch to markets other than China be increasing our promotions, exhibitions, adverts, increasing flights and granting visa exemptions,” Leech said.

He added that despite the tensions, Vietnam still had great strengths for investors, particularly those who planned to build a long-term strong trust in the country’s real estate development.

(Source: vir.com.vn)

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