Gaming | Vietnamese beach town on brink of resort boom

A small beach town in the South of Vietnam, around 125 kilometers southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, is facing a rapid expansion in local development as it gears up to become a major hotel and resort destination, aided by the presence of a potential casino.

Known as the Ho Tram Strip, the area has already seen the sale of three development sites with  further three developments currently under construction. Besides the announced projects, others are still in initial planning stages or on hold.

The interest from developers derives from the site’s future casino, The Grand Ho Tram Casino, which will become a catalyst for the town’s economy if it receives a gaming license allowing local residents to gamble.

According to a Savills Vietnam study, the number of hotel rooms could grow by nearly 40 percent year-on-year in 2018, due to the new developments, and by an additional 17 percent in 2019.

The CEO of developer Sanctuary Residential Resort is confident that the hospitality industry in the town is on the verge of a boom.

“Ho Tram Strip will take off, there is absolutely no doubt about it,” said CEO John Manning. “With its proximity to the population and wealth of Ho Chi Minh City, it will not be long before you’re driving down the strip and it will all be hotels and resorts.”

Nguyen Nam Son, chairman of another local resort developer, Tanzanite, said, “We think that if local gaming is allowed, then Ho Tram will grow even faster. In Macau, after the large casinos were allowed in 2004, apartment prices went up five to 10 times in the decade after.”

A small international airport only five minutes from Ho Tram has also been approved by the local government, which will make the town more accessible to both foreign visitors and Vietnamese holidaymakers living in other parts of the country.

Vietnam’s government is only beginning to experiment with the idea of permitting locals to gamble in domestic casinos – an initiative that could reclaim as much as USD800 million per year in tax revenues that currently go to casinos in neighboring Cambodia.