Anaya Hospitality bets US$1.4bn on a string of jungle resorts across the Mekong

BANGKOK — On a red-dirt bluff above the Mekong at Nong Khai, the first guest villas of Anaya Hospitality's flagship resort are already framed in dark teak, their roofs angled to catch the river breeze that locals call the lom waen. By the time the property opens in March 2027, it will be the anchor of the most aggressive resort build-out Southeast Asia's mid-luxury segment has seen since the pandemic.

Anaya, controlled by the Thai retail-and-property dynasty behind the Saengthong group, said on Tuesday it would commit 49 billion baht, or about US$1.4 billion, to develop 14 riverside and highland resorts across Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam by 2029. It is the clearest signal yet that capital is flowing back toward experiential leisure after two flat years.

The wager is specific: that a generation of travellers who once chased five-star beach grids will now pay 12,000 to 22,000 baht a night for remoteness, rivercraft and a 40-minute boat transfer in lieu of a porte-cochère. Anaya is betting slowness sells.

What the announcement covers

The programme spans roughly 1,900 keys, with individual resorts kept deliberately small — between 60 and 140 rooms — to protect rates and limit the strain on fragile riverbank sites. Four properties will sit in Thailand's northeast, three in Laos near Luang Prabang, two in Cambodia's northern provinces and the remainder along Vietnam's stretch of the lower Mekong in the delta around Cao Lanh.

Anaya will own the freeholds outright in Thailand and operate the others under 30-year management and lease structures negotiated with provincial authorities. The group has lined up 18 billion baht in syndicated debt led by two Thai commercial banks, with the balance funded from internal cash flow and a minority equity slice from a Singapore family office it declined to name.

Construction on three sites — Nong Khai, Luang Prabang and Kratie — is already underway, with the remaining 11 to be phased in two-year tranches. The company expects the first four resorts to reach stabilised occupancy of 64 per cent by their second full year of trading.

Why the Mekong, why now

The river corridor has lagged Asia's marquee leisure markets for a decade, starved of branded supply and reliable air links. That gap is precisely the opportunity, said Anaya's chief executive, Pichai Saengthong, in an interview at the group's Sathorn headquarters. The math, he argued, has finally turned.

Coastal Thailand is overbuilt and over-rated; the river is underbuilt and underpriced. We would rather own the only good hotel within 200 kilometres than the fortieth good hotel on a beach, Mr Pichai said.

Improved regional air access underpins the thesis. The reopening of a daily Bangkok–Luang Prabang turboprop route and a new Vientiane–Siem Reap rail connection have cut what were once full-day overland journeys to a few hours, widening the catchment for properties that were previously unreachable for a long weekend.

Anaya is also leaning on the China–Laos railway, which has quietly rerouted Chinese leisure flows inland. Group planners project that mainland visitors, who all but vanished from the corridor in 2021, will account for a third of room nights at the Laos properties within three years.

The competitive squeeze

Anaya is not alone in spotting the riverbank. A Singapore-listed operator confirmed last month it had signed two Mekong sites in Cambodia, and a European luxury chain is understood to be scouting Luang Prabang for a 70-key retreat. The window for first-mover land assembly, brokers say, is closing fast as provincial governments tighten riverfront zoning.

That race carries its own risk. Concentrating nearly US$1.5 billion in a single thematic bet leaves Anaya exposed to monsoon disruption, fluctuating river levels tied to upstream dams, and the thin labour pool of hospitality-trained staff in remote provinces. The group says it will run two residential training academies, in Nong Khai and Kratie, to seed its own workforce.

For now, the construction cranes on the Nong Khai bluff are the most concrete sign of conviction. If Mr Pichai is right that the next premium dollar in Southeast Asian travel will be spent on quiet water rather than crowded sand, the Mekong's long-overlooked banks are about to become very expensive real estate indeed.