Hotel association needs to play role in tourism promotion

     The role of the HCMC hotel association is not strong enough to draw the attention of hotels to join hands in promoting tourism in the city, said a five-star hotel executive in HCMC.
Dominik Stamm, newly appointed general manager of the Mövenpick Hotel Saigon, said the association should be seen as a venue for sharing experiences as well as sounding out business opportunities.
Vietnam should learn from experiences of neighboring Thailand where the Thailand Hotel Association (THA) actively promotes the country as a destination for tourists, he told the Daily on Monday.
The Swiss general manager, who has nine years’ work experiences in the same position in Thailand, said Vietnam should have a Vietnam Hotel Association where member hotels of three- to five-star standard could discuss ways for a win-win business.
The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has launched a nationwide promotion by calling for hotels to offer 30%-50% discounts on room rates to woo international travelers with low-cost tours. However, the promotion program has received a lukewarm response from hotels around the country.
Talking about room rates, Stamm said hotels in HCMC were on the higher side as compared to other destinations and that hotel room rates in Thailand were around 30% lower than in HCMC.
“Room rates are not a question of competition, but a question of demand and supply,” Stamm said, adding that in Thailand there were many hotels and lack of demand had obviously driven the room rates down.
He said strong demand buoyed by the high economic growth in the past gave hotels in HCMC an edge over other regional destinations. He expected that the demand would continue to grow in coming years.
“I strongly believe in a couple of years we will see even more demand,” he said.
Stamm, however, acknowledged that the global economic downturn was sending more turbulence to hotels in town as evidenced by a big decline in room occupancy as compared to last year.
The falling demand has forced hotels to look into their business performance for a suitable adjustment, such as reducing room rates, launching promotions and offering special deals to attract clients.
“We are in the problematic time. It is very challenging,” Stamm said, adding the demand had decreased a lot while the supply was still the same and that hotels were trying to fill up their rooms.
However, Stamm projected that the market would turn around from the third quarter of this year.