Face-to-Face: Tran Trong Kien
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Today, Travel Daily Asia chats with Tran Trong Kien, CEO of TMG Hospitality, the Vietnamese company that operates Victoria Hotels & Resorts and various other travel-related businesses…
Q) Is TMG Hospitality looking to expand its portfolio in Vietnam, and if so, which destinations are you considering?
We are currently operating six Victoria Hotels & Resorts in Vietnam, one EMM Hotel in Saigon and our 28 cruise boats in the Mekong, Halong Bay and Saigon. Moreover, we are expanding the portfolio in Vietnam with opening EMM Hoi An in April 2016. We are also launching a luxury river cruise ship in January 2016 which is our first management contract. There will be several projects which we will develop for ourselves as well as a small number of selected partnerships. We only focus on the Victoria Hotels and Resorts, EMM brands for resorts/hotels and various cruises.
Q) And are you considering expanding the brand into international markets?
We have been operating the Victoria brand in Siem Reap, Cambodia and Luang Prabang, Laos for several years. We have just finished the contract with Siem Reap but will probably find a couple of suitable assets there to manage or purchase. In addition, we are looking at some assets in Myanmar. While we are looking at other countries, we do not forget there are many more opportunities in Vietnam which remains one of the fastest growing markets in Southeast Asia, which is the fastest growing region in the world.
Q) And are you also looking to expand your cruise operations with new vessels and/or itineraries?
We have been operating our cruises successfully for over a decade now but on a relatively small scale. We are developing new cruise concepts to support our travel brand Buffalo Tours and its expansion in Asia. While the current cruises are in Halong Bay and Mekong Delta are doing fine, we are looking at some smaller ocean cruises, some new river cruise opportunities.
Q) International visitor arrivals to Vietnam have been declining recently. Have you been affected by this, and what do you think needs to be done to drive more tourists to the country?
International arrivals declined in the first six months of 2015. This is mostly the direct impacts of decline in Chinese and Russian arrivals. Our traditional markets are strong and growing. In addition, the arrivals from North Asian countries have never been that strong making South Korean and Japanese our number two and three in arrival numbers.
The government and industry have made some changes including visa waives for five European countries and some promotional initiatives. We will launch Vietnam digital campaign in the next couple of months. We have already seen a good rebound from July with arrival number month on month is increasing again. 2015 is an expansion year for TMG Travel while consolidation for TMG Hospitality. Overall, we will see some 50% growth in TMG in 2015 which is not bad. I would expect that TMG Hospitality will be growing faster in the next couple of years to follow TMG Travel’s expansion.
Q) What are your key source markets, in terms of nationality, and are you noticing any major shifts?
We have a very good balance of sourced markets for our resorts and hotels. The biggest markets are from USA, Australia, France, UK, Germany and Japan but none of them is more than 20%. We are observing a very healthy increase in Chinese and domestic markets over the last 24 months and expect that trend will continue in the next few years.
Q) And what further developments can we expect from Victoria Hotels/Cruises in the remainder of 2015 and 2016?
I mentioned above, we have been consolidating a little over the last six months due to market conditions in Vietnam. We are however growing again with two new openings in the next four months and a number of projects in the pipelines. Our fundamentals are very strong and all of our assets are profitable. We have solid brand recognition, longevity in the market, strong global distribution and at the same time we are innovating new concepts and services. We will open at least three to five assets a year over the next five years and will secure to be the leading Vietnamese brand operating regionally.
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