Hotel in Vietnam among the Southeast Asian cities caught up in a frenzy of high-end hotel construction

While other major Southeast Asian tourist destinations are facing a possible oversupply of luxury hotel rooms over the next few years, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are expected to benefit from the building boom. An extra 23,000 four- and five-star Vietnam hotel rooms are expected to become available in Singapore, Bangkok, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Kuala Lumpur between this year and 2012, according to a survey by global real estate consultant firm CB Richard Ellis (CBRE).



CBRE Hotels Regional Executive Director Robert McIntosh said it was possible some projects could be delayed or even cancelled. - Vietnam hotel

The global economic downturn could result in the more mature tourist markets of Singapore, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur experiencing a short-term oversupply of high-end hotel rooms, according to the “Hotel Supply Outlook 2009” report released in by CBRE in Singapore last week.

Tourism industry experts have previously forecast HCMC and Hanoi need thousands of extra high-end hotel rooms to accommodation an increasing number of international tourism travel in Vietnam. In 2007, Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper said HCMC needed at least 10,000 more luxury hotel rooms by 2015. The same year, Vietnam News Agency reported Hanoi needed an extra 7,000 by 2010.

Over the next three years, HCMC is expected to add 38 percent more four- and five-star rooms, taking the total available in the city to 7,000, the report said.

Hanoi will add 3,000 rooms, an increase of 75 percent to 7,000 rooms, CBRE said.

“The addition of new supply to these cities is essential in promoting further development of the tourism industry and to ensure capacity exists to accommodate future growth of visitor arrivals,” CBRE said in the report. “This is particularly important in Ho Chi Minh City which currently suffers from having a small supply of hotel in Vietnam.”

Vietnam tour sector has felt the sting of the global economic slump since the beginning of this year, with international arrivals dropping 16 percent in the first quarter from the same period last year. About 100 hotels have halved room rates in a bid to attract foreign visitors. Room rates across Vietnam have fallen by an average of 30 to 50 percent since the end of last year, according to Vietnamese tour operators. More information Vietnam travel: | Vietnam tour | Vietnam hotel | travel in Vietnam | hotel in Vietnam |