Reports show that the number of travelers to Quang Nam has increased again. Within three days, from December 30, 2023 to January 1, 2024, the province received 103,000 travelers, an increase of 130 percent over the same period the previous year. This included 20,200 travelers who used accommodation services.

However, the figures were small compared with the number of operating hotels in the locality. This explains why many hotel owners have had to sell their hotels at a loss in late 2023 to get money for debt payments.

The hotelier who had seven hotels with 2,000 rooms said that, after two years of incurring loss because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of guests dropped dramatically. The  travel industry still cannot fully recover. He decided to sell four hotels to pay bank debts.

“The amount of money from the sale of four hotels was 30-40 percent lower than my initial investment capital. As land prices have decreased, investors are no longer interested in hotels,” he explained.

The businessman is running the remaining three hotels, with 200 rooms, but is considering selling two more hotels. 

He said that many travel firms in Hoi An have been distressed because of business stagnation. While the national economy is facing challenges and people have to tighten their purse strings, airfares have been raised, giving one more reason to cancel travel plans.

“Previously, you could take a flight with just VND800,000, but now, you have to pay VND2 million to fly on the same route,” he explained.

“There are many travelers on holidays, but there are sporadic travelers on ordinary days,” he added.

Many commercial banks have recently offered to sell hotels to collect debts. The hotels are assets mortgaged by hoteliers to get bank loans. As they cannot pay debts, their hotels are foreclosed by banks.

In mid-November 2023, VietinBank Hoi An announced the auction of many hotels and resort villas in Hoi An at starting prices from tens to hundreds of billions of dong.

Prior to that, in late October 2023, Agribank offered to sell 11 houses in Hoi An. The starting prices of the assets ranged from VND8.5 billion to VND71.179 billion. The total value of the 11 assets was VND252 billion.

Ho Giap