For a long time, Gulf travellers heading to South-East Asia chose the Maldives, Thailand or Bali. Vietnam is now a serious alternative. It has a long coastline, more five-star rooms every year and resort groups that are investing heavily in the beach destinations Gulf families tend to look for.
The numbers show how quickly the top end is growing. Vietnam had 291 five-star establishments with 94,819 rooms at the end of 2025, according to the national tourism authority. Five-star rooms rose by more than 8% that year, while the number of four-star rooms fell. More than 38,000 hotel rooms are under construction across the country, and almost all of them are upscale or luxury. International arrivals reached 17.7 million in the first nine months of 2026, up 14.5% on last year.
Phu Quoc: the island built for resorts
Phu Quoc, an island off Vietnam’s southern coast, is the country’s most developed resort destination, and it is still growing. It will host the APEC leaders’ summit in November 2027, and Sun Group, one of Vietnam’s largest leisure developers, plans about 17,400 more rooms and serviced apartments there in 2026–27. The island had about 26,500 rooms at the end of 2024.
The best-known address on the island is Regent Phu Quoc. It opened in April 2022, is owned by BIM Land, part of Vietnam’s BIM Group, and is run by IHG under its Regent brand. It has 176 suites and 126 villas, many with private pools, which suits families and groups who want space and privacy. Next to it are Regent Residences, a collection of villas for buyers who want a home on the island.
Phu Quoc’s appeal for Gulf visitors is practical as well as scenic. Its dry season runs roughly from November to April, which coincides with the Gulf’s milder months and school holidays. The island also allows visa-free stays for most foreign nationals, though travellers should check the current rules for their passport before booking.
Nha Trang: a beach city with big resort groups
Nha Trang, on the south-central coast, has one of Vietnam’s highest concentrations of five-star hotels. Together with Da Nang, the surrounding Khanh Hoa province holds more five-star hotels than Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City combined. Much of the resort capacity around the bay belongs to Vinpearl, the hospitality arm of Vingroup, Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate. Vinpearl runs about 35 hotels nationwide, and most of its rooms are managed by international operators such as Melia and Marriott.
For families, the draw is the self-contained resort: island properties with beaches, theme parks and several restaurants on one site. Nha Trang is busier and more commercial than Phu Quoc, and is better suited to travellers who want activity than to those seeking seclusion.
Da Nang and Hoi An: beaches and heritage in one trip
Da Nang is Vietnam’s fastest-growing hotel market by revenue this year. Its long beach is lined with international resorts, and the city is a short drive from Hoi An, a UNESCO-listed old town with smaller boutique hotels and riverside villas. That combination of a beach resort for most of the stay and a few nights in a heritage town is one of the easiest itineraries to sell to first-time visitors.
Da Nang has also just been named by Skyscanner as the only South-East Asian city on its list of trending destinations for 2027, a sign of how quickly it is moving onto international travellers’ shortlists.
Getting there from the Gulf
Gulf carriers fly to Vietnam’s two largest cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. From there, short domestic flights reach Phu Quoc, Nha Trang (via Cam Ranh airport) and Da Nang. Vietnamese airlines are also adding international routes quickly, so travellers should expect connections to keep improving. In practice, a Gulf family can reach most Vietnamese resorts in one connection, with total journey times similar to those to Bali.
Halal food and family travel
Vietnam is not a Muslim-majority country, so halal options vary by location. Large resorts in Phu Quoc, Nha Trang and Da Nang are generally more able to cater to dietary requests than smaller hotels, but standards are not uniform. Our advice is simple: confirm halal kitchen arrangements, prayer facilities and pool or beach privacy directly with the resort before booking, rather than relying on a booking site’s description.
The country’s appeal to families is more straightforward. Villas with private pools, connecting rooms, kids’ clubs and theme parks are common at the luxury end, and prices are often lower than in comparable resorts in the Maldives.
Who is behind the boom
Vietnam’s resort growth is driven by a small number of domestic developers, including Sun Group, Vinpearl and BIM Group. They build the resorts, then bring in global brands such as IHG, Marriott and Accor to run them. For travellers, that means familiar loyalty programmes and service standards in places that were barely on the map ten years ago.
It also means a lot of new rooms opening at once. That can work in visitors’ favour: in Phu Quoc especially, new supply may keep rates competitive after the 2027 summit.
For more on the resorts, owners and operators shaping Vietnamese hospitality, AsiaHotelier tracks the market and profiles individual hotels.
