Hello Kitty heads for Hanoi

HANOI A new indoor Hello Kitty theme park will be built in Hanoi to encourage family entertainment and domestic travel.

BRG Group and Sanrio Wave Hong Kong – brand owner of the world famous Hello Kitty character – signed, last month, a Memorandum of Understanding to build a Hello Kitty park – the first internationally branded park in Vietnam.

It could take another two years to build the project and open it to the public.

The cooperation between BRG Group and Sanrio Wave Hong Kong is regarded as an important milestone, marking the transformation of the entertainment market in Vietnam.

Sanrio is the owning company of various famous characters, including Hello Kitty, which was first introduced to the world in 1974.

Hello Kitty park will also have other cartoon characters such as My Melody, PomPomPurin, Cinnamoroll, Bad Badtz-Maru, Kerokerokeroppi.

Vietnam still does not have an international theme park such as Universal Studios, or Disneyland in Vietnam in contrast to Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand where theme park investment has grown.

According to the Vietnam Tourism Association, every year there are approximately 5 million Vietnamese travel abroad, spend about USD6 billion.

Established in 1993, the BRG Group invests in real estate, hotels, resorts, golf courses, retail trade and manufacturing.