US firm to build resort on Vietnam's infamous prison island
HANOI - A US investment firm has won approval to build a four-star beach resort on Vietnam's southern island of Con Dao as part of plans to attract more tourists to the infamous former French penal colony.
Peter Ryder, managing director of Indochina Capital Corporation, said the ground-breaking ceremony for the 4.5-million dollar 60-room hotel project, would take place later this year.
"There is a niche in the market and it forms part of our game plan to develop a number of resorts in Vietnam over the next three to five years," he said.
The resort, which is expected to be opened to guests in late 2006, will be the most luxurious hotel on Con Dao, which attracted 280,000 foreign tourists last year and 4.8 million Vietnamese visitors.
Tourism authorities are heavily promoting Con Dao, which is located around 250 kilometres (around 150 miles) from the southern business capital of Ho Chi Minh City, as one of the key stops on the country's tourist trail.
In May, the state-run Vietnam Airlines began daily flights to the island.
Con Dao, which is the largest of a small chain of islands, was named Poulo Condore by the French and established in 1861 as a prison for opponents of their colonial rule. It earned a fearsome reputation for torture and cruelty.
In 1954, the prison was taken over by the US-backed South Vietnamese government, which continued to take advantage of its remoteness to hold opponents of the regime.
It was finally shut down in 1975 after the fall of Saigon to communist North Vietnamese forces, by which time more than 20,000 Vietnamese were estimated to have died during incarceration there.
Agence France Presse - August 02, 2004.
Notorious Vietnam prison gets posh resort
HANOI - A four-star beach resort is being
built on Vietnam's notorious Con Dao prison island as
part of the government's drive to lure visitors to
off-beat sites including the disputed Spratlys.
More than 20,000 Vietnamese have died on Con Dao,
which was first used by French colonialists in 1861 and
later by American forces until the the end of the Vietnam
War. It has not been used as a prison since 1975.
U.S. investment firm Indochina Capital Corp expects
to break ground on a 60-room resort on the island, 230 km
(426 nautical miles) south of Ho Chi Minh City, later
this year, said Peter Ryder, managing director of the
firm.
"We continue to look for unique, special
opportunities, and Con Dao clearly fits that mould," he
told Reuters on Monday. The resort, which will supplement
smaller hotels on the island, is expected to receive its
first guests in late 2006.
Local authorities are aggressively revamping Con
Dao's image, aiming to spend more than 365 billion dong
through 2010 to transform the island.
The island has more than 20 beaches and a national
park, and is served by daily direct flights from Ho Chi
Minh City.
Vietnam is also promoting tourism to the Spratly
islands, a cluster of dozens of islets, rocks and reefs
in an area believed to be rich in energy reserves, that
are claimed in whole or part by 6 countries.
Reuters - August 02, 2004.
|