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| SBH Gloria Hue Resort is recognized as meeting 3-star standard |
Retaining visitors with quality accommodation services
Recently, the Provincial Department of Tourism has issued a decision to recognize the SBH Gloria Hue Resort, owned by Vinh Thanh SBH Investment Joint Stock Company - GESTVIET (located in Village 3, Vinh Thanh Commune, Phu Vang District), as meeting 3-star hotel standard.
The SBH Gloria Hue is located on the stunning Vinh Thanh beach in Hue. The SBH Gloria Hue & SBH Village project consists of three main phases. In the first phase, 120 hotel rooms, a main pool, a children's pool with poolside amenities, an outdoor spa with 18 treatment beds, a buffet restaurant, a lobby bar, a pool bar, and a snack bar have been completed. Phase 2 includes 20 luxury villas with private pools and golf mats, and a themed restaurant. In phase 3, a 500-room hotel and a 400-room high-rise building are planned. The SBH Gloria Hue Resort, when put into operation, promises to become a destination offering a new and unique blend of Vietnamese and Spanish hospitality styles, the first one in Central Vietnam.
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| Visitors were checking in at a hotel in Hue |
After many years of relatively static accommodation services in Hue, particularly in terms of the increase in the number of hotels meeting 3-5 star standards; the year 2024 has brought some exciting news with the appearance of the 3-star SBH Gloria Hue Resort. Hue's tourism sector has 2 additional hotels recognized by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism as meeting 5-star standards, namely La Vela Hue Hotel (in June 2024), and Langco Bay Retreat Resort (in October 2024), bringing the total number of 5-star accommodation facilities in Hue to 10.
According to the leader of the Provincial Department of Tourism, as of early October 2024, there are nearly 900 accommodation establishments in the province, with over 14,300 rooms and more than 22,900 beds. Among these, there are 205 hotels with 8,672 rooms and 14,350 beds. There are 24 hotels rated from 3 to 5 stars.
Compared to the past, the accommodation needs of visitors have changed significantly. There is a growing trend among visitors to choose high-end accommodations, but Hue is currently facing a severe shortage of such facilities. In fact, over the past 20 years, the number of 4 - 5 star hotels in Hue has not increased significantly. The limited number of rooms in the accommodation system makes it difficult to compete with other localities in terms of prices and often leads to a shortage of rooms during peak seasons and holidays.
Mr. Nguyen Huu Binh, Director of Century Hue Hotel, believed that the service infrastructure must meet the development requirements of tourism. In addition to perfecting products and tours, accommodation services that meet the needs of visitors are also a solution to retain visitors. However, there remains a difficult problem that during holidays and weekends, “sold out” situations are common, but on weekdays, occupancy rates cannot be fully filled. This is a concern that requires investors to calculate very carefully when investing.
The aforementioned challenges require solutions, according to tourism businesses. This is because the development trend demands quality accommodation services. Meanwhile, the room inventory of high-star hotels has not met the demand, making it difficult to remain competitive in a highly competitive tourism context, where retaining visitors is increasingly challenging.
Upgrading tourism by attracting investment
Solving the tourism investment puzzle remains crucial in improving quality and attracting more and more visitors to coming and staying at the destinations. With promising forecasts for a vibrant high-end service segment and the involvement of strategic investors, localities have organized numerous investment promotion programs to showcase potential and investment opportunities in tourism, as well as proactively creating an open environment to attract investment.
At the conference themed “New trends in tourism development investment in Vietnam”, which was organized by the Institute for Tourism Development Research at the end of October 2024, Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Pham Van Thuy said that Vietnam has implemented many policies to attract capital into tourism projects, from transport infrastructure to investment in the construction of resorts and entertainment services. Investment capital in tourism has reached tens of trillions of VND, including both domestic capital and foreign direct investment (FDI).
Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Director of the Institute for Tourism Development Research, believed that to motivate investors to choose to invest in the tourism sector in Vietnam, it is necessary to rely on many internal factors such as tourism potential and the local destination brand to promote investment attraction in tourism, especially investment from abroad. There needs to be an open foreign investment attraction policy, creating an attractive investment environment, especially the readiness and proactiveness of the locality in promoting tourism investment attraction, and facilitating administrative procedures in granting tourism investment certificates, etc.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc, Director of the Provincial Department of Tourism, recognizing tourism as a spearhead economic sector, the local tourism sector and authority has been implementing many open mechanisms and policies to call for and attract investment in tourism, including high-end accommodation services. The province is focusing on solutions to further improve the business environment, enhance the province's competitiveness, and create favorable conditions to effectively attract investment capital into the tourism sector.