Mainland China’s first undersea tunnel has opened to traffic in the southeastern province of Fujian. According to a Xinhua report, the 8.7km road tunnel connects Xiamen Island to the Xiang’an district of Xiamen city. Costing CNY3.2 billion (US$468 million), the development consists of three tunnels; two of which will contain the three-lane highway, with one for maintenance. It is expected to cut travelling time between the two areas from one hour to just nine minutes.

(Source : Travel Daily Asia)

The international property services firm Savills Vietnam has released a survey showing that the 4 and 5-star hotel markets in Hanoi continued to drop in both average occupancy and room rate at 4.4% and 4.8% respectively in the third quarter of this year compared to the second quarter.

The 4-star hotels performed better than the 5-star properties in their average occupancy, at slightly higher than 70.5% and less than 60% in the first three quarters of 2008, respectively, according to the survey.

The room occupancy of 60-70% is much lower than that in previous years when there was not any “no low season” for the hotels of 4- and 5-star ratings in the capital city. Even in the third quarter of previous years, which is considered as a low tourist season, many hotels reported their average occupancy of over 90%.

An executive of a 5-star hotel in Hanoi, who asked not to be named, told the Daily on the phone that demand this year was much lower than that of previous years.

Savills Vietnam put overall revenue per available room of the 4 to 5-star hotels in Hanoi in the third quarter at around USD 80 per night, and said this was a significant decrease. However, the company did not clarify how much this average revenue is lower than the same period last year.

The hotel executive and Savills Vietnam attributed the falling revenue to the impact of volatility in local and global markets, as well as higher hotel prices that luxury hotels offered over the past years because demand outstripped supply.

According to the survey, the current average room rate at 5-star hotels in Hanoi is less than USD 145 per night while the rate at 4-star hotels is more than USD 95 per night. These rates are exclusive of 5% service charge and 10% value-added tax.

However, the rates were lower than in HCMC where 5-star hotels publicized nearly USD 158 per day, 4-star hotels charged more than USD 100 per day and 3-star offered more than USD 63 per day. This was one of the reasons why average occupancy was much lower-than-expected in the period, about 55.16% at 5-star hotels and 67.24% at 4-star properties in HCMC.

In Hanoi, the hotel market was hit by slow demand growth in 2008, as a result of a year-on-year increase of 5.8% in the number of foreign visitors to Vietnam in the first nine months of this year, or much lower than the national target of 12-17% rise.

However, Savills Vietnam anticipates that Hanoi’s hotel performance will perform better in the medium-term given improved economic conditions next year.

There are 15 four-star and five-star hotels in Hanoi, or over 1.4 million room nights yearly. Hanoi’s tourism officials said this capital city would need approximately 24,000 hotel rooms, with 6,800 of 4 to 5-star ratings in 2010 when the city looks to attracting two million foreign visitors.

However, there are concerns that high building materials costs and a tight credit policy in 2008 have had a negative impact on the capacity of many developers to implement their hotel projects, resulting in some delays and even cancellations.

Savills Vietnam predicts a total of 2,000 new 4 to 5-star rooms will enter the market by 2010, and nearly 1,000 of these will be in Tu Liem District in Hanoi’s suburbs.

The event features gastronomy from four continents with the help of three star Michelin chef Alain Passard from Paris, Chef Meryem Cherkaoui from Casablanca and Chef Marc de Canck from Montreal and chef Didier Corlou from Hanoi. The hotel’s chef André Bosia and his team, as well as some of the world’s most prestigious wineries, are also joining the festival.

The festival opens with the “Inspired” cuisine from America of Chef Marc de Canck on December 4, 2008 which fuses influences from Europe and America. Chef de Canck, whose cuisine concentrates on the quality of the ingredients and innovation, prefers to call his a ”cuisine inspired by the moment”.

While from Asia are a culinary forum themed unique spices and rare products of Vietnam. The seminar is led by Chef Didier Corlou who has worked tirelessly to develop a healthy cuisine by fusing some of the rare products of Vietnam using the virtuosity found in the techniques of French cuisine. This seminar is the result of his thirteen-year contact with Vietnamese colleagues and aroma hunters and discoveries about the country’s flora by him.

“The cuisine of the Sun” by the Chef Meryem Cherkaoui will bring flavours from Africa on December 5, 2008 while a gala dinner with three-star Chef Alian Passard will bring European dishes.

“All stars” brunch to be held on December 7, 2008 will bring a unique Sunday brunch with a sensational array of culinary discoveries designed exclusively by all invited chefs with free flow of Moët & Chandon champagne included.

This fourth annual festival, hosted by Sofitel Metropole Hanoi in co-ordination with Air France and the L’ Espace- French Cultural Centre of Hanoi, once again aims to confirm Hanoi and Vietnam as a rising gastronomic destination.

As of January 4, 2009 Vietnam Airlines will offer flights from Ha Noi to Can Tho and vice versa with seven flights per week. The firm announced to slash airfare for this route by 50% within 12 days, till January 15, 2009. Accordingly, the lowest airfare will be VND 750,000 (US$44).

Jetstar Pacific recently announced to launch its Hanoi – Can Tho route with four flights per week. The first flight is scheduled on January 3, 2009.