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Vietnam: Phan Trong Minh is the new general manager of the 122-room la Residence Hotel and Spa in Hue.
The hotel’s owners, Apple Tree Group Hospitality, say the appointment of Minh, a native of Hue, marks a turning point in Vietnam’s hospitality industry.
Kurt Walter, group general manager of Apple Tree Group Hospitality, said: “For so many decades, Vietnam‘s hospitality industry lay dormant, preoccupied as it was by the First and Second Indochina Wars, and then a decade and a half of really really tough times after 1975. There was no Lausanne School here, no Cornell, and for so long, no hotels of world class stature to groom the ranks of local management. But those days are over. Minh is born of an old Hue family. This adds an incredible dimension to the guest experience at La Residence.”
Minh started work in the hospitality industry in 1993 as a waiter at the Century Hotel, then one of Hue’s top three hotels. Two years later, he transitioned to a job as a receptionist, and then on to work as a front office supervisor. After 12 years at the Century, Minh worked two years in management at another Hue hotel before joining La Residence in 2007 as the front office manager.
La Residence Hotel was in Condé Nast Traveler’s Hot List in 2007 and in 2012 won a place as one of Asia’s top 20 resorts in Condé Nast Traveler’s Reader’s Choice Awards. It is set on a two-hectare site with 200 metros of frontage on the Perfume River, and features art deco furnishings and décor.
www.la-residence-hue.com
