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ZULKI OTHMAN,
general manager,
Hyatt Regengy Danang
The biggest challenge so far is the
grasp of the English language of our
employees. The employees are very ac-
commodating, friendly and approach-
able. They always strive to ensure that
our customers are well taken care of
when they are here with us. As such,
we would like our employees to be
able to communicate effectively with
our customers. To overcome this chal-
lenge, we are working with our training
department to ensure that the level of
understanding in the English language
is high among our employees.
MATHIEU LACABANNE,
general
manager, Mercure Danang Hotel
The biggest challenge is definitively
the oversupply of hotels. This will im-
prove, for example due to the new direct
flights, but more hotels are scheduled to
open in the coming months. This impacts
businesses and we can see that too much
competition hits not only occupancy, but
also average room rates.
30
timeout
DANANG IN FOCUS
Son Tran
talks to Danang’s top hoteliers about the
challenges they face and what needs to be done to
boost tourist numbers
The insider’s take
GERD KOTLORZ,
director of sales and
marketing, InterContinental Danang
Sun Peninsula Resort
Selling Danang itself is sometimes
a little bit challenging because it is an
educational process. A colleague who
recently went to ITB in Berlin said tour
operators there did not know the dif-
ference between Danang and Hoi An.
A lot of destination marketing needs to
be done to mark Danang out. So, when
it comes to the destination, we still
have to educate the international com-
munity. We expect some support from
the Danang Department of Tourism
and the Vietnam National Administra-
tion of Tourism. We are also a founding
member of the Central Coast Vietnam
Destination Tourism Marketing Organi-
zation which will drive the promotion
of the coast further, way beyond what
has been done so far. The first fruits of
that effort are the launch of Dragon Air
flights from Hong Kong to Danang and
more flights of Silk Air from Singapore.
ADWIN CHONG,
general manager
Crowne Plaza Danang
We have our own market segment
and the bulk of our guests are from
China. It is not necessarily that all of
them are coming here for gaming, they
also come to enjoy Danang’s scenery.
We have made a lot of effort to promote
the Crowne Plaza Danang to the Chinese
market, including encouraging chartered
flights to Danang, with nine flights from
China per week. It is not only benefiting
our hotel, but also contributing to other
hotels. We are building the second phase
next month, with another hotel of 600
rooms, residences and a shopping cen-
tre. We have our own distributing and
marketing network in China that enables
us to bring in tourists from China.
Marketing is key to promoting tour-
ism here, it’s not only the private sector
that should be promoting Danang, but
the local authorities too. Finding quali-
fied staff is also a big challenge and we
will set up our own training academy
within the hotel.
MATTHIAS WIESMANN,
general manager, Furama Resort
Danang is still a small player com-
pared to Bali and Phuket, which have
both been developing tourism for over
30 years. Danang’s tourism has just
started to develop and it will take time.
However, Danang has tourism poten-
tial that you can not find in Phuket
or Bali. Along the 120 kilometres of
coastline from Hue to Danang and Hoi
An, we have a lot of attractions: Hue
is a cultural city, Hoi An is an old trad-
ing port town and Danang is a nice
modern city. And on the 30 kilometre
drive from Danang to Hoi An, you will
find beautiful resorts and two world-
class golf courses that you can not
find in Phuket and Bali. The issue is to
promote such attractions in interna-
tional markets and we have set up a
nine-member committee to promote
the Central Coast Vietnam. As a result
tour operators from the UK have said
they will send more guests to Danang
this summer.