The Sheraton Nha Trang, located in the central coastal city of Khanh Hoa Province, will host its soft opening on March 19 to welcome both business and leisure travellers.
The international-standard, 30-storey hotel will feature six food-and-beverage outlets, a full-service spa and an oceanfront swimming pool. Each of the resort's 284 rooms will have ocean views too.
Scott Hodgetts, general manager of Sheraton Nha Trang, said that March would be a good time for the resort to open.
"March is a good time for us. There may be a slowdown from the European market, but we believe we can drive business from the local market, especially considering June-August is school holidays in Vietnam;' he said via email yesterday.
He added that while Nha Trang already had many hotels and resorts, the Sheraton would offer different products and services, especially to local guests.
"The local market is an important market for us as 80% of tourist arrivals to Nha Trang are domestic.
Therefore, we will be offering a special promotion that will help local residents experience Sheraton Nha Trang's services;' Hodgetts said.
The Sheraton will target Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) tourism too.
"We will also be concentrating on domestic MI CE business at the same time as we work towards positioning Nha Trang as the new destination for international MICE events," Hodgetts said.
He added that he expected international MICE tourism would boom ill Nha Trang given recent upgrades at Cam Ranh International Airport just 30 minutes drive from the Sheraton.
Nha Trang is home to 95% of the province's 406 operational hotels and resorts, according to figures from property service firm Savills Vietnam and the Khanh Hoa Tourism Promotion Centre. The seaside city has three five-star hotels, five four-star hotels and twelve three-star hotels, with a combined 2,451 rooms.
Savills Vietnam forecast 18 new hotels and resorts would go online in the future. These projects include Spring Hotel, Sea and Sun Hotel, Lam My Hotel and Nha Trang Palace.
On the national front, Hodgetts said Vietnam would gain international recognition as infrastructure improved. In addition, he said the country had shown tremendous growth potential even during the global economic downturn.
"We believe that today's reduced travel budgets, cancelled meetings and 'staycations' (stay at home or nearby) are tomorrow's pent-up demand. We know that fundamentally the global economy will rebound and we are already seeing signs now;' he said.
According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), international tourist arrivals in Vietnam in 2009 fell 10.9% year-on-year to about 3.7 million. However, the inbound segment rebounded strongly in the first two months of this year, growing 27.4% to 878,000 compared to the same period last year.
The Sheraton Nha Trang comes seven years after the first Sheraton was opened in HCMC and then in Hanoi.
"Starwood (the company that manages Sheraton) currently has three hotels in Vietnam. But the wheels are in motion for two more, including The Westin Resort Cam Ranh and Le Meridien Saigon. We are also actively working on potential projects in Da Lat and the central coast;' Hodgetts said.
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