Thailand’s Leading Hospitality Company, Centara Hotels And Resorts Planning Massive Expansion In Vietnam

Centara Hotels & Resorts, part of the Thai retail conglomerate Central Group, and Thailand’s leading hospitality company is planning an aggressive but strategic expansion into Vietnam. The company is planning to launch more than 20 hotels with the next 60 months all over Vietnam.

Centara already has the presence of one hotel in Vietnam, the Centara Sandy Beach Resort in Danang and has also been operating various retail  brands across Vietnam over the last few years. The company is targeting key cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh and Haiphong for its city hotel concepts and also in the economic fast growing regions like Danang, Phu Quoc, Nha Trang, Cam Ranh and Hoi An. It is also planning resort concepts for the southern coastal areas of Vung Tau, Ho Tram and Mui Ne as these areas are also fast developing as tourist resort destinations and already new road infrastructures are being build to connect the region with Ho Chi Minh City and also a new international airport is being constructed in the nearby Dong Nai province.

Centara CEO, Thirayuth Chirathivat commented, "Vietnam’s tourism industry enjoyed a great year in 2018 and we expect this trend to  continue for the next few decades. Boosted by booming intra-Asian travel, affordable budget airlines, relaxed visa policies and impressive improvements in transport infrastructure, the country is already well on track toward non-stop record-breaking tourism figures for the next few years.

In 2018, International visitor arrivals to Vietnam reached a record total of 15.8 million, the majority of which came from Asia, and this surge is continuing. According to data from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, almost 6.7 million overseas travelers visited the country in the first four months of this year, and a buoyant economy is boosting domestic tourism despite the ongoing global economic slump.

Demand for new hotels and resorts is outpacing supply and  recent data from industry analysts shows more than 23,000 hotel rooms currently under construction in Vietnam with more projects and investments being reviewed by the Vietnamese government.

Centara’s focus on Vietnam is just part of the Company’s global strategic vision, which is to double its total hotel portfolio by 2022. Centara currently has 71 hotels and resorts with more than 13,000 rooms in operations and some under construction across Southeast Asia (including Thailand, Laos and Vietnam), the Middle East, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. It is also making its debut in Myanmar with the renovations of three properties it acquired and also building another three more. In Laos, it is opening three properties with a total of 216 rooms in 2020.

The company recently added a new destination, Sriracha to its local collections in Thailand with the launching of the Centara Sonrisa Residences & Suites. The 145-room property is  located one and a half hour from Bangkok along the coast of Thailand’s eastern seaboard in Chonburi Province.