Haitang Bay’s capacity will double every 12 months for the next few
years until more than 30 5-star resorts are fully operational alongside
another 70 luxury hotels.
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Haitang Bay |
“The speed of development here is beyond anything I have seen
before,” says Stephan Stoss, general manager of the Sanya Marriott
Resort and Spa at Yalong Bay. “The infrastructure around the resorts –
transportation, flights, labour supply – is being built almost as
quickly as the resorts themselves.”
Stoss’ counterpart over at Haitang Bay is Sean Baskett, general
manager of Marriott’s Renaissance Sanya Resort, which opened on March
18. Baskett arrived in Sanya after serving as general manager of the
Marriott Hotel in Sydney for six years. Like many of the other general
managers who have arrived in the past year, he is excited by the
atmosphere of growth and progress, and the daily discoveries to be made
in a newly developed resort island
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Marriott’s Renaissance Sanya Resort |
“Renaissance is about providing a discovery for our guests with
intriguing, indigenous and independent experiences,” Baskett says. “The
resort has been designed to facilitate this, and every day I discover
something wonderfully new – a nighttime swim in the resort’s magnificent
swimming pool, with spectacular fibre optic lighting creating the
effect of stars floating on the water that changes colour at each
moment; local delicacies such as Dongshan lamb and hele crab; evenings
kicking back with a Haitang iced tea with fresh coconut juice and a
concoction of spirits in our Star Fish Bar. It’s really a daily journey
of discovery.”
The mainland’s recently declared National Coast will eventually have
the capacity to host virtually any international meeting or convention.
Massive, sprawling resorts, such as the Renaissance, are the backbone of
Haitang Bay’s hospitality sector.
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Haitang Bay |
Some of the statistics are quite impressive. The Renaissance Resort’s
meeting space has more than 2,500 square metres of banquet space,
including a 1,430-square-metre grand ballroom. The Presidential Suite is
one of the largest in China at more than 1,000 square metres, with four
bedrooms, two swimming pools, a private dining room for 12 and lounge
areas, including a huge television and entertainment system with
Nautilus speakers. Access is by private elevator.
The amazing thing is not that the Renaissance has such opulence on
offer, but that each and every resort going into Haitang Bay will offer
something similar, all with elements and design that will be uniquely
associated with each individual brand. The size and luxury of the
Renaissance is actually the standard for any of the luxury hotels here.
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Add caption |
The Keewin Radisson, for example, is building a massive 800-room,
55-villa resort with buildings that are connected via canals – you can
actually check in via boat, foot or golf cart. The Doubletree Hilton,
which just opened, is a 450-room, 50,000-square-metre luxury resort with
a 2,400-square-metre swimming pool and 435 metres of private beach.
The entire Haitang Bay beach area is three times the size of Yalong
Bay and, from the looks of the resorts that have already opened, the
hotels will be built to scale.
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