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Saigon Invest Group has joined the race to tap Danang’s coastal tourism potential with a new luxurious resort.

Saigon-Danang Investment Corporation, an affiliate of Saigon Invest Group, will develop the $110 million Le Meridien Danang Resort & Spa on Non Nuoc beach, which is currently seeing a construction boom.

According to the developer, the resort will consist of 349 hotel rooms , 149 luxurious apartments and 48 villas for sales.

• Photo : Danang’s treasured strip of sand is turning into gold owing to mushrooming resorts such as Le Meridien

Once completed in 2013, the five-star resort will heat up already fierce competition to lure foreign and local tourists to a range of tourism ventures along Danang’s coast. Last year, the city received about 1.35 million tourists and the number is expected to increase to 1.45 million this year.

After years of lying dormant as a result of developers’ financial constraints, a number of resort projects are getting off the ground. Next to Le Meridien site is Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa, which is expected to open late next year, with 27 villas, 174 apartments and more than 200 hotel rooms.

The latest opening is the Life Resort Danang with 178 rooms and Silver Shores International Resort with 600 rooms. The 30-kilometre coastal stretch from Son Tra peninsula in Danang to Hoi An old town is expected to welcome more than 3,000 new hotel rooms in the next couple of years.

Le Meridien Resort is Saigon Invest Group’s third project in Danang, followed by the Lien Chieu and Hoa Khanh industrial parks. The group said the resort’s development was strong evidence of its investment diversification, especially in the “huge potential hospitality industry”, and tourism would be its strategic investment sector.

US-based WATG, the world’s leading design consultant for the hospitality, leisure and entertainment industries, Singapore’s BuregaFarnell Pte will have input into Le Meridien. The resort will be managed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc, which manages more than 940 hotels and resorts in 97 countries.

Saigon Invest Group mainly operates in the fields of real estate and infrastructure, manufacturing, construction and finance. It is also the owner of Lagi Resort in southern Binh Thuan province and Robin Hill Resort in Dalat.

By Nhu Ngoc