French hotel group Accor has announced expansion plans for its operations in Vietnam, which include more hotels under the Novotel and Mercure brands, the launching of the Pullman and Ibis brands, and the aim of doubling the number of rooms under management in the country by 2012.

The company anticipates the opening of the first Pullman hotel in Vietnam - Pullman Vung Tao - towards the end of this year, while the first two Ibis sites will both be in Ho Chi Minh City and - with a nod to the city's former name - be called the Ibis Saigon and the Ibis Saigon South. Further developments will see the opening of Accor's second MGallery hotel in Vietnam, the Hotel De L'Opera Hanoi, with three new Novotels' being the Novotel Imperial Hoi An, Novotel Resort Phu Quoc and Novotel Saigon Centre. The Mercure Hanoi Hado is also slated to open this year.

Elsewhere, and scheduled for a 1 April opening, is Le Belhamy Hoi An Resort and Spa, a 131-room resort hotel on Ha My Beach near the UNESCO World Heritage site of the ancient town of Hoi An. The resort comprises a mix of garden rooms, bedroom villas and pool villas, with facilities including the Champa and Nam Dinh restaurants, a poolside bar, two swimming pools and a spa. Accor currently has 13 hotels and 2,147 rooms in operation throughout Vietnam, with the planned developments adding more than 2,000 rooms to the total.

Pic: Hoi An,a UNESCO listed World Heritage site