Construction has begun on a beachside hotel and resort in Vietnam's Hai Phong City, the first large-scale tourism project licensed by the northern city since the Asian economic crisis of 1997, the Vietnam Investment Review reported Monday.

Capitalized at US$15 million, the Nacimex Do Son Hotel and Resort is to take advantage of the Chinese tourist market that is growing 20 percent annually.

Hai Phong is expected to receive 390,000 foreign investors, mostly Chinese, this year.

The Nacimex, developed by the local Nam Cuong Tourism and Trading Company, will have 400 hotel and villa rooms, two restaurants, and a ballroom capable of accommodating 1,000 people. It will become operational in 2006.

Hotel development in Hai Phong is lagging far behind the neighboring province of Quang Ninh and the capital city of Hanoi.

"There are no luxury rooms for foreigners in the Do Son beach area, and all hotels there are two-star and below," said Le Thi Ung Nguyet, deputy director of the Hai Phong Tourism Department.

Cat Ba Island, a major tourist site in the city, is also calling for investors to build luxury hotels, said she, adding that only one four-star resort is under construction there.
 

(People's Daily September 2, 2003)