Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam’stourism real estate market has the potential for strong development, bututilities and services are needed to attract investors, heard a seminarorganised by the Vietnam Real Estate Association (VNREA) this week.

Nguyen Van Dinh, vice chairman andgeneral secretary of the Vietnam Real Estate Brokers Association, said sincethe end of 2018, the domestic tourism real estate market had witnessed theemergence of new trends as businesses focused on developing complexes includingresorts, shopping centres, and sports and entertainment facilities.

Nguyen Tran Nam, VNREAchairman, said the domestic and international tourism industries heldopportunities for investors due to the rising number of new customers.

Developing projects in the old waywould not ensure competitiveness or suit customers' demands, Nam said.

Ngo Huu Truong, deputy general directorof Crystal Bay Group, said the complex model had been successfully implementedaround the world, attracting millions of visitors each year.

Vietnam's tourism real estate marketneeded to develop in accordance with global trends to increase competitivenessand attract more foreign tourists to Vietnam, Truong said.

The projects needed to meet demands forrelaxation, discovery and entertainment. This would make tourists spend moretime and money here.

Vietnam had a great opportunity tobecome a new regional and global tourism destination, so it needed to attractdomestic and foreign investors to develop the high-class tourism real estatesegment, Truong said.

Finance expert Nguyen Tri Hieu said Vietnamhad great natural resources that were attracting more and more foreigntourists, but the country had failed to promote national parks as touristdestinations. The nation’s national parks might protect animals, but theydidn’t serve tourists, even though they were great places to enjoy a holiday orshort break.

Vietnam did not have many luxuryresorts that combined a luxury stay and exciting experiences, he said.

Nam said the tourism real estate markethad the opportunity to grow by taking advantage of nature and culture to boosteconomic growth with the implementation of Resolution 08-NQ/TW on developingtourism to become a key economic sector.

According to the Vietnam Real EstateAssociation, 15 million foreign tourists visited Vietnam each year, much higherthan the 4 million visitors welcomed 10 years ago. There were also 80 milliondomestic tourists per year, four times higher than the previous decade. Tourisminfrastructure in many localities had been developed on a large scale, creatingmany international-standard projects.

In addition, tourism real estate pricesin Vietnam were low compared to other countries with the same potential. Therefore,the tourism real estate industry had a lot of chances for development,especially for middle-income customers, Nam said.

In the medium- and long-term, thetourism resort real estate segment, especially in coastal areas, would be abright spot on the market.

However, Nam also said that investmentin real estate tourism was more challenging than investing in housing becauseinvestors had to look at both sales and the effective management of propertyprojects.

CBRE forecasts

“To carry growth forward, hospitalityreal estate developers in Vietnam will have to go through marketdiversification, paying attention to potential non-traditional areas such asNam Hoi An, Binh Thuan and Ba Ria-Vung Tau, as well as diversifying theirproduct offerings and bringing in professionals to manage their properties,”said Robert McIntosh from CBRE.

Besides expanding into non-traditionalmarkets, developers were also active in creating new hospitality products forsale, the most notable of which were coastal shophouse/shopvillas in Phu Quocand Ha Long.

By the end of the third quarter of thisyear, each of these two markets had roughly 2,000 units launched, with a salesrate of about 90 percent. Current developers in these products were mainlytop-tier developers, which helped with the absorption of existing launchedsupply, according to CBRE.

Shophouse/shopvillas can be used forvarious purposes such as retail and hotels, and as such had attracted manyindividual investors who had some prior experience in the sector.

CBRE, like VNREA, also noted thegrowing interest in developing wellness resorts. Although this format wasalready popular in the region, it was still relatively new in Vietnam andgrowth opportunities were abundant, given the fact the number of middle-classVietnamese was expected to witness the fastest growth in Southeast Asia overthe next five years. Tourists from North Asia were also increasingly lookingfor tourism products that incorporated wellness treatments.

Looking forward, Vietnam would continueto be a key target in the expansion plans of many professional hotel operators.Not only well-known international hoteliers such as Accor, Marriott and BestWestern, but also Vietnamese groups such as Lodgis, Sailing Club, Silk Path andWink were looking for new projects to gain more market share.

According to experts, hospitality designsthat could foster memorable experiences would be in high demand. Researchshowed that tourism groups in different segments had different preferences interms of hotel design, so developers conduct market research on their targetedcustomers in order to implement a suitable design./.