Vietnam is in high risk of price advantages loss over its neighbors where better hotels cost less money as a shortage of luxury hotels in the country is pushing up the cost of high-end accommodation.
According to recent survey by the National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the number of hotels in Vietnam has increased nearly four folds in the last decade, from 2,480 in 1997 to over 8,550 in 2007. However, there are only 25 four and five star hotels throughout Vietnam while Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok have 29 and 28 respectively.
Meanwhile, occupancy rate at Vietnamese hotels has averaged 90-95 per cent in recent times. In Ho Chi Minh City the figure is 99 per cent, with most high-end hotels full.
The over-demand has pushed hotel prices in Vietnam up, especially in major cities. Sometimes, the increase reaches 35-50 per cent, even 65 per cent.
For years, foreign tourists have been attracted by the Vietnam’s soft prices, but the cost of accommodation has jumped twice in the last year.
Ben Thanh Tourist Company calculates that the average cost for a MICE tour (participating in Meeting, Incentive, Convention and Event tour packages) in Vietnam is $180 per night while the correspondent fee in Thailand is only $100.
The unreasonable increases have led to many tour cancellations by international tourists, Hoang Yen, head of the Ben Thanh Tourist’s Center for Incentive, Tours and Events (CITE), said, revealing that her company has just lost a group of Russian tourists who switched to Macao due to a shortage of hotel rooms in Vietnam.
Similarly, a group of Italian tourists that wanted to stay one night in Ho Chi Minh City were turned away by luxury hotels that demand at least two nights.
If the prices keep rising, there is a real possibility that foreigners would cease to travel to Vietnam so frequently, travel operators warned, explaining that the country is in fierce competition with many countries in the region and the world.
In an effort to deal with the situation, Vietnam has been trying to attract more investors to build new hotels in major tourist hubs like Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, central Hue and Danang cities, southern Phu Quoc Island, and northern Quang Ninh province.
The country aims to have 15,000-20,000 four and five star rooms by 2010. (Thanh Nien Daily, Vietnam Panorama)
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