.jpg "Photo: Tuoi Tre")
Photo: Tuoi Tre
Spanish artists are working on the Hanoi-based Sen Thang Long Hotel to turn it into the first hotel in Southeast Asia furnishing in a European contemporary artistic style.
According to the Second Secretary of the Spanish Embassy in Hanoi, C. Espada, this is a unique gift that Spain presents to Hanoi on the occasion of its 1,000th birthday, representing the close friendship between the two countries.
Fifteen artists have been invited from Spain to do the decoration of the hotel’s 21 rooms, each with a different style.
The project, which was an initiative of the Spanish Embassy in Hanoi also opens up a new direction of bilateral cooperation, he added.
According to Espada, once completed in June 2011, the renovated hotel, to be renamed Thang Long-Espana Hotel, will be a symbol of the Spanish contemporary culture in Hanoi that helps Vietnamese people know Spain better and vice versa.
Le Hong Hai, Director of the Hanoi Tourism Corporation’s Thang Long Opera Hotel, which runs the Sen Thang Long Hotel, said this is an opportunity for Sen Thang Long to improve its infrastructure, personnel training and business capacity, thus promoting the trademarks for itself and the corporation.
Costs of the renovation at around VND5 billion (US$526,700) are mainly sourced from the Spanish Embassy’s cultural fund.
The first phase of the project is expected to be completed in December this year. Spanish visitors will receive a 20-percent discount of room rates for five years since the hotel’s re-opening.
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