The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has decided to revoke the four-star certification of the Oscar Saigon Hotel at 68A Nguyen Hue Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.

The decision was made after VNAT inspected 22 hotels in the city - one five-star hotel, nine four-star hotels, and 12 three-star hotels - to strengthen its management over tourism accommodation.

Fifteen hotels have maintained the quality required under their star certification: Tan Son Nhat Saigon Hotel, Palace Hotel Saigon, Ramana Saigon Hotel, Park Royal Saigon Hotel, Vissai Saigon Hotel, First Hotel, Paradise Saigon Hotel, Hoang Hai Long Hotel, Elios Hotel, Liberty Saigon Hotel, Le Duy Hotel, New Epoch Hotel, Hong Ngoc Chau A Hotel, Tan Son Nhat Hotel, and May Hotel.

It also reminded six hotels of the need to improve quality standards as per their certification: Kim Do Hotel, New Pacific Hotel, Paragon Saigon Hotel, Liberty Saigon Greenview, Hong Ngoc Chau A 3 Hotel, and Sun Flower Hotel.

Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan, Director General of VNAT, said that its inspections will improve the quality of accommodation in Ho Chi Minh City in particular and in the country in general, to increase satisfaction among tourists. He also stressed that hotels in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, which welcome about 90 per cent of all international tourists to Vietnam, need to strengthen the quality of their accommodation to improve the image of Vietnam’s tourism sector.

The city’s Department of Tourism currently manages 1,079 tour operators, including 571 international tour operators and 459 domestic tour operators, 43 travel agents, and eight foreign travel representatives.

As at May 31 the city had 2,143 hotels and hostels with 50,633 rooms, 20 of which are five-star hotels, 19 four-star hotels, 79 three-star hotels, 276 two-star hotels, 1,425 one-star hotels, two luxury tourism apartments, and 322 hostels with tourism certification.

In the first half this year there were over 2.4 million international tourists visiting the city, an increase of 12.2 per cent year-on-year, who spent VND49.487 trillion ($2.21 billion), up 5.3 per cent and representing 47.7 per cent of the annual target.

Tourists from key markets all recorded strong growth year-on-year, such as the US (10 per cent), Japan (11 per cent), South Korea (39 per cent), and China (64 per cent). The visa exemption policy for five EU countries accelerated tourist numbers, with those from the UK up 23 per cent, France 13 per cent, Germany 19 per cent, Turkey 19 per cent, and Italy 28 per cent.

The Department of Tourism has targeted welcoming 5.1 million international tourist arrivals in 2016, a 10.8 per cent increase against 2015. Domestic tourist arrivals are to be 21.8 million, up 12.9 per cent. Total tourism revenue from tour operators, hotels and restaurants is targeted at VND103.686 trillion ($4.6 billion). Key international markets for the city are Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the UK, France, Germany, the US, Australia, China, India, Russian-speaking countries, and Turkey.

VN Economic Times