On the evening of Saturday, 18 April, the Ho Tay Ballroom at the newly minted Ascott Tay Ho Hanoi was transformed into a slice of Stamford Bridge. More than 300 Chelsea supporters — some flown in from Bangkok, Jakarta and beyond — packed the largest pillarless ballroom in Hanoi, waiting on Chelsea legend Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and the kick-off of the Blues’ match against Manchester United. Dubbed “Night with the Blues,” it was the showcase event of the fourth edition of The Famous CFC, Ascott and Chelsea Football Club’s international fan engagement programme — and its first outing in Vietnam.
It was a football party. It was also, quietly, a business statement.
The market nobody in Southeast Asian hospitality is ignoring
Vietnam closed 2025 with nearly 21.2 million international arrivals, up more than 20% year-on-year and the highest on record. Tourism authorities have set a 25 million target for 2026. The opportunity is not only leisure: Vietnam’s MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) industry is forecast to grow from US$7.79 billion in 2025 to US$10.75 billion by 2030, and Hanoi has formally designated MICE tourism as a strategic priority.
That math has not been lost on The Ascott Limited, the lodging arm of Singapore-listed CapitaLand Investment. According to CoStar, Ascott ranks among the top three global hospitality companies with the largest active pipeline in Southeast Asia — a region where tourism is projected to nearly double in value by 2030. Within that region, Vietnam is forecast to grow the fastest.
“Southeast Asia is home to more than 30% of Ascott’s global portfolio, with Vietnam among our most active markets for new openings,” said Tan Bee Leng, Ascott’s Chief Commercial Officer.
From serviced residences to full-service hospitality
Ascott has long been known in Vietnam for its serviced residence brands — Somerset, Oakwood, Citadines — quietly housing expats and long-stay business travellers for years. What’s changing is the ambition.
The 1,165-room Ascott Tay Ho Hanoi is the clearest expression yet of the group’s pivot into full-service hospitality. The complex combines accommodation, F&B and large-scale events under one roof, anchored by an international convention centre with 13 meeting venues and the Ho Tay Ballroom, a pillarless space seating up to 2,000. It is the largest MICE venue in the Ascott portfolio, and its convention centre made its official debut hosting The Famous CFC. The property is scheduled to open fully later this year.
Read alongside existing developments like Oakwood Residence Hanoi, Somerset Grand Hanoi, Somerset West Point Hanoi and the all-villa Oakwood Ha Long, the picture is of a group no longer content with a single lane.
Why football? Because Vietnam is already in the conversation.
Here is where The Famous CFC stops being a marketing flourish and starts looking like strategy.
Vietnam’s football obsession is well-documented — the national team is among the best-supported in the region, and the Premier League commands a following that punches well above the country’s economic weight. Chelsea, in particular, enjoys one of the larger Southeast Asian fan bases. For Ascott, the Official Hotels Partner of Chelsea FC, running a fan programme in Hanoi was less about building awareness and more about converting existing passion into loyalty.
The two-day programme included a coaching clinic with Hasselbaink for young beneficiaries of the Centre for Supporting Community Development Initiatives (SCDI), a fireside chat at Tay Ho, a members-only meet-and-greet at Somerset West Point, and the Night with the Blues finale. Ascott Star Rewards members — the company’s loyalty tier — were at the centre of it.
friendly games.
“Ascott Star Rewards is built on our ‘Stay Rewarded’ promise,” Tan said, “and through this partnership, we continue to extend that promise beyond stays into curated experiences — from close interactions with club legends to early access to key properties across our portfolio.”
A thesis, not a tagline
Put the two stories together and the logic is clean. Vietnam is the fastest-growing hospitality market in Southeast Asia. Its traveller base — young, increasingly affluent, deeply connected globally — does not want another cookie-cutter hotel. They want MICE that does not feel like a conference centre basement, and weekends that double as something to tell their friends about.
Ascott Tay Ho Hanoi is engineered for both. It can host an international conference on one floor and a 300-person Chelsea supporters’ night on another. The Famous CFC is not an ornament bolted to the opening; it is a stress test — proof that the building, the brand and the country can carry the kind of experience international capital is increasingly looking to buy into.
Vietnam arrived as a destination a long time ago. What the Hanoi weekend suggested is that it is arriving, now, as a stage.
