Vietnam’s Best Hotels Alliance Set for Major Expansion

The Vietnam based Best Hotels Alliance (BHA), a strategic marketing coalition of leading international hotels and resorts primarily in Vietnam, has announced 12 new members, bringing the total membership to 19 hotels.

The 12 new members include: the seven properties of the Victoria Hotel Group (Victoria Sapa, Lao Cai Province; Victoria Phan Thiet, Victoria Can Tho, Victoria Chau Doc, Victoria Ben Tre (opening soon), Victoria Resort, Hoi An and the Victoria Siem Riep, Cambodia (opening 2001)); Huong Giang Hotel, Hue; Saigon Morin Hotel, Hue; Lang Co Resort, Lang Co (opening 2001), Phu Quoc Island Resort, Phu Quoc and the Hai Au hotel & Bao Dai Villa, Hai Phong. These properties which now expand the BHA’s network to Vietnam’s secondary and tertiary cities, include old style, legendary hotels as well as contemporary hotels - all of which are regarded as the premier hotels in their respective destinations.

Other new additions to the BHA are a river cruise ship plying the Mekong River and a luxury train transporting visitors from Hanoi to the idyllic mountain resort of Sapa in Northern Vietnam. And by the end of the year, the BHA expects to add a further 8 hotels in regional gateway cities which will feed tourists to Vietnam, such as Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai. A further 10 hotels are also expected to come on line in 2001 throughout the so-called Indochina region: Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and China. The BHA is also looking to include other tourism related products such as luxury trains and ship hotels, which will provide a wide range of luxury tourism products for travellers to the region.

The BHA was established in January 1998 to support tourism in Vietnam during the pan-Asian economic crisis and has since developed into an extensive network of tourism products and services. The BHA works through a network of domestic and international tour operators to distribute and promote its products and services. It is also in the process of establishing marketing & sales representation offices in Japan, Europe, North America, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok.

The BHA is now establishing a comprehensive web presence to provide up-to-date information on its members’ products and services, booking facilities and in the future, e-banking payment facilities for travel agents and individual clients. This will become a one-stop service for both the travel trade and individual clients to make all their Indo-China travel arrangements.

Commenting on the BHA’s latest announcement Mr. Paul Stoll, General Manager of the Furama Resort Danang and the elected President of the Best Hotels Alliance, who is also the recent recipient of a special award for services to tourism from the VNAT, said, “The Best Hotels Alliance is becoming an important tourism force and a reliable partner to Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) with which it shares a commitment to the development of responsible tourism in Vietnam". The BHA’s objective is to improve the opportunities and business environment for its members.

The Alliance has been working closely with the VNAT on its national campaign “Vietnam – A Destination for the New Millennium” as well as helping to define key issues that need to be addressed in order to develop the tourism industry. These include changes to visa requirements and streamlining of immigration procedures, a review of tourism taxes and increasing the frequency of flights.

In Vietnam meanwhile, visitor arrival figures are increasing as a result of measures taken by VNAT and travel industry partners to strengthen the tourism development of Vietnam. This year, Vietnam is predicting over 2 million visitors with the results up to August this year already showing 1.25 million arrivals, a year-on-year increase of almost 20 percent.

Meanwhile the Alliance also offers its members excellent cross-marketing opportunities, since collectively it consists of more than 2500 rooms located in the country’s primary cities and resorts and a comprehensive network of top class accommodation and world class facilities throughout the length and breadth of the country. The Alliance currently plans a guest recognition programme that encourages guests of one hotel to be loyal to others in the Alliance, in much the same way as other hotel group loyalty programmes.

“Vietnam has all the essential elements in place to become a major tourism destination,” said Paul Stoll, “Some of Asia’s major historical sites are located here. It is a melting pot of Buddhism, Hinduism, Brahmanism and Taoism. It has tremendous natural assets such as its climate, thousands of miles of white sand beach flanked by lush green mountains. The diving is excellent and so is the golf. Then there is the ancient culture and the warm and friendly nature of the Vietnamese people themselves. Add to this the romance of the French colonial era, an image of adventure and mystique and its undiscovered remoteness, Vietnam is undoubtedly the Asian destination of the future.”