Hotel Giants Gather in Sanya

Haitang Bay, Sanya, Hainan has become the most popular place for the world’s superstar hotels. They are all striving to build luxury hotels there. The total investment has reached more than ten billion US dollars.

The 42.8 km beach named Haitang Bay is located in Haitangwan Town, Sanya, and Yingzhou Town, Lingshui in Sanya. In the next five years, it may become one of the places with the largest number of super five star hotels in the hotel.

By the middle of November 2009, Kempinski, Langholm, Sofitel, Conrad, Doubletree, Fairmont, Grand Hyatt, Sheraton, the Luxury Collection, Shangri-La and Renaissance have all settled in Haitang Bay. Meanwhile, the administration commission of Haitang Bay has formed a development plan for 2010 whose total investment will be 11.95 billion yuan (USD 1.75 billion).

At the end of 2011, this beach accompanied by the coconut palms will become a place with the largest number of five star hotels in China or even in Southeast Asia. This “National Beach” will assume the responsibility to help Sanyan develop into the “World Holiday Paradise”   

Strategically Important for Hotels

According to the Subarea Planning and Urban Design of Haitang Bay stipulated by Sanya municipal government, Haitang Bay will cover 98.78 square kilometers, of which the urban construction area will cover 51.60 square kilometers. The term of the plan is from 2006 to 2020.

By now, the government has spent 1.1 billion yuan (USD 161.16 million) in acquiring land for construction and compensating the residents in these places. Most of the land acquisitios have been finished.

After the residents’ moving to another place, the construction of Haitang Bay increased its own pace. Now the 13 world top hotel companies mentioned above have already begun to build their hotels or resorts in this place, 3 of which have been finished without inside decoration.

It is known that Haitang Bay’s planning and orientation strictly conform to the standard of the “National Beach”. Therefore, the hotels in this place must be five star hotels at least. To get access to Haitang Bay, the companies must initially cooperate with the property owners and the municipal government of Sanya. Sanya Long Island Co., Ltd (hereafter Long Island Corporation) under China Sigma Co., Ltd has cooperated with Starwood Group to build two luxury hotels in Haitang Bay – Sheraton Hotel and the Luxury Collection. But it took a year to confirm this project.

According to Feng Zhibin, vice general manager of Long Island Corporation, the property owners and the brand management companies have to hold several rounds of negotiations before reaching the final cooperation agreement on hotels, which is followed by the construction design and landscape design.

Long Island Corporation started the negotiations with 12 branded hotel companies in 2007. In May 2009 it signed the first agreement with Starwood Group. It is known that the agreement between Long Island Corporation and Starwood Group includes everything concerning hotel construction and management, like operation, technological service, brand using, planning service and so on. Feng Zhibin said that the hotel company will take part in all the process of the hotel construction and the following procedures until the hotel meets the standard of opening.

Why is Haitang Bay so attractive for the international branded hotels? The fast growing Chinese economy is an important reason. Then Sanya is famous for its beautiful scenes and pollution-free environment. The 2003 Miss World Pageant held in Sanya made it known to the world. All these factors make Sanya become one of the most popular destinations for holidays in the world. The prosperous tourism brings about the great development opportunities for the hotels.

World Holiday Paradise

According to the current construction speed, the first super five star hotel in Haitang Bay will be opened in October 2011. In the next three or five years, Haitang Bay will become a completely new resort.

As the primary pillar of Sanya’s economic development, the tourism in Yalong Bay, Sanya Bay and Yazhou Bay successively met one same problem in their development: the lack of land resources. Therefore, Chen Gaizhong, head of Sanya Land Resources Administration Bureau, said that the focus of Sanya’s development has been moved to Haitang Bay since the other beaches have got no space for further development. This area will be the new economic growth point for Sanya.

Till the middle part of 2009, there were still many companies trying to settle down in Haitang Bay. Among all the projects approved in 2009, the largest one was the International Village, which was authorized by the International Olympic Committee and the Chinese Olympic Committee. It was considered as the cultural legacy of Beijing Olympics. Covering 2,200 mu (1.47 million m2), the project received the total investment of 5 billion yuan (USD 732.28 million). The total planned construction area was said to be 350 thousand square meters, which will be divided into five functional districts of culture, sport, conference, vacation and commerce.

When this project is finished, there will be 40 five star hotels and several seven star hotels in Haitang Bay.

The development of Haitang Bay reflects Sanya government’s determination to establish the tourism as the economic pillar. “In the world, it is quite rare to see so many luxury hotels gathering in one city. The financial crisis squeezed the investment into Haitang Bay. We believe that Sanya will become as famous as Maldives in the next three or five years,” said a Sanya government official.