Wafaifo Resort Hoi An

The Wafaifo Resort, a five-minute walk from Hoi An ancient town in central Vietnam, will be the first project for the ambitious hospitality consultancy firm.

A new international hospitality brand and hotel called Wafaifo has been launched in central Vietnam. The company will open the 134-key lifestyle resort, the Wafaifo Resort Hoi An, in Q1 2024 as part of a strategic plan that includes a new mall, a hospitality asset management service, and other tourism-related projects.

The new company is based in Hoi An. Its name, Wafaifo, derives from "wa" from water, and "faifo", the historical name of Hoi An.

Wafaifo intends to offer hospitality project consultancy across Indochina, drawing on the hotel industry expertise of its co-founders, Managing Director, Mr Pieter van der Hoeven, and Commercial Director, Mr Mikkel Krantz.

Van der Hoeven and Krantz will work to establish the Wafaifo brand, its flagship urban resort in Hoi An, and extend awareness of the diverse attractions of the area to an international audience. They will be supported by Wafaifo Deputy Managing Director Ms Uyen Ngo, who brings experience as the owner of a number of resorts in central Vietnam.

The new brand will include a division called Wafaifo Optimisers, which aims to help hospitality clients launch new projects in the region and enhance operational efficiencies and profits.

While Vietnam's tourism performance, like other Asian destinations, is still behind 2019 levels, there is a trend to higher quality tourists. The Vietnam National Administration for Tourism, reports that while visitor numbers to Vietnam are only 20% of 2019 levels, 2022 revenues of VND456.7 trillion (US$19 billion) are already 70% of the 2019 amount.

Year to date, South Koreans are Vietnam's main source of tourists with around 763,900 arrivals followed by the US at 266,000.

Wafaifo will make further announcements in early 2023.

Hotel website