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Vietnam’s Alma Resort set to reopen in January
Alma Resort, on Vietnam’s Cam Ranh peninsula, is gearing up to open next month.
It spent eight months closed, prompted by Covid-19’s resurgence in Vietnam and welcomes guests again on January 15.
"Since Alma’s debut in late December 2019, we nor anyone else has experienced anything like the rollercoaster ride, with all of the tourism industry’s fits and starts as we dealt with three major lockdowns," said Alma’s managing director Herbert Laubichler-Pichler.
Since the resort’s closure from May 16, Laubichler-Pichler said the team has kept busy developing a host of new services, from kickstarting a major solar power project, extensive training, developing a ‘back of house’ tour and enhancing Alma’s mobile app.
During the closure, Preferred Hotels member Alma appointed a sustainability officer to oversee three new staff sustainability committees focused on ‘green products’, ‘innovation and solutions’ and ‘partnerships’, focused on garbage segregation, tree planting, paperless solutions, education and more.
The implementation of a solar power project is believed to be the most ambitious yet for a hotel in Vietnam.
Alma joined forces with Australian-founded company Typsy, a global digital hospitality training platform, to ‘up-skill’ hundreds of its hotel staff.
Learners are encouraged to explore their interests, build skills to help with internal promotion and career progression, and earn industry-recognised qualifications via Typsy’s "Netflix-style" library of hospitality training videos.
Offering contactless communication with guests and staff in real-time, Alma has also recently updated its mobile app to usher in a payment gateway, allowing guests to settle bills in a cashless manner via the app.
Other changes include doubling the size of the kitchen of beachfront seafood restaurant Atlantis, and introducing a gourmet family barbeque experience..
"We’re cautiously optimistic about 2022 for a tourism industry that was brought to its knees by the pandemic," Laubichler-Pichler said.
"Things will gradually pick up but it’ll take time before tourism numbers come back to the levels of demand we experienced after Vietnam’s first lockdown."
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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