In an exclusive interview, Mr. Julian Moore, General Manager of Azerai Ke Ga Bay, shared insights into the resort’s recent acclaim as one of the world’s most Instagrammable hotels. He credited the property’s success to its unique blend of contemporary architecture, lush tropical gardens, and breathtaking natural surroundings between Hon Ba Island and the sand dunes. Moore emphasized that social media visibility is crucial for boutique luxury properties like Azerai Ke Ga Bay, allowing them to compete with larger brands and reach global audiences. He described the resort’s sunken lounge and infinity pool as central to creating a seamless indoor-outdoor experience that helps guests disconnect from their busy lives. Looking ahead, Moore revealed plans to expand wellness offerings, introduce new experiential dining concepts, and collaborate with local artisans, ensuring Azerai Ke Ga Bay continues to offer personalized luxury and authentic cultural experiences that resonate deeply with modern travelers.
Azerai Ke Ga Bay is basking in international recognition after being named runner-up in the “Most Instagrammable Hotel in the World” contest, an accolade reflecting the resort’s unique blend of design, natural surroundings, and immersive guest experiences. According to the team, the property’s success lies in its ability to evoke powerful emotions through a harmonious combination of contemporary architecture, lush tropical gardens, and captivating coastal scenery.
One standout feature contributing to the resort’s photogenic appeal is its location between Hon Ba Island and the sand dunes along Vietnam’s stunning Ke Ga Bay. Hon Ba Island, crowned with an iconic lighthouse, serves as both a historic landmark and a visual focal point for guests. The island’s beauty is particularly mesmerizing at sunrise and sunset, offering perfect moments for photography and creating a profound sense of connection between travelers and nature. The shifting light that bathes the dunes and water adds depth and artistry to the guest experience, positioning Azerai Ke Ga Bay as a paradise for photographers and relaxation seekers alike.
Social media visibility plays a pivotal role in the resort’s branding strategy. In a hospitality world dominated by large corporate brands, winning recognition as the most Instagrammable hotel in Asia-Pacific gives Azerai Ke Ga Bay a powerful marketing edge. Such accolades allow the boutique property to extend its reach into new markets, generating organic interest from travelers seeking unique and authentic destinations. Social media, driven by visual storytelling, serves as an invaluable channel for showcasing the aesthetic charm and personalized service that define the Azerai experience.
Key design elements at the resort include the renowned sunken lounge and infinity pool. The design philosophy focuses on creating a seamless indoor-outdoor living environment. Guests can relax surrounded by panoramic views of the bay, sky, and distant horizon. The tranquil setting encourages visitors to disconnect from everyday life, offering moments of peace under shifting cloudscapes, vibrant sunsets, and star-filled night skies.
Azerai Ke Ga Bay is also actively expanding its wellness offerings, responding to the growing demand for health-focused travel. The resort has introduced sunrise yoga sessions and plans to broaden wellness experiences even further in 2025. Management maintains close communication with guests, ensuring that evolving programs like guided kayaking and local fishing excursions reflect travelers’ desires for both relaxation and adventure.
Additionally, the resort has launched golf packages in partnership with Azerai La Residence in Hue, aligning with the brand’s commitment to luxury lifestyle experiences tailored to diverse guest interests. Whether guests seek cultural immersion, active pursuits, or simple relaxation, the Azerai philosophy emphasizes personal choice and unique, curated encounters.
As part of Adrian Zecha’s boutique Azerai portfolio, Azerai Ke Ga Bay continues to balance timeless luxury with contemporary expectations. The resort focuses on authentic engagement with local culture, sustainable practices, and the creation of personalized guest memories. Looking ahead to 2025, the team plans to enhance experiential dining and forge deeper collaborations with local artisans and producers. This includes working with Vietnamese boutique coffee roasters, distilleries, and ice cream makers—further embedding the resort within its cultural and geographic landscape.
Azerai Ke Ga Bay’s blend of natural splendor, thoughtful design, and personalized luxury ensures its place as a shining gem on Vietnam’s hospitality scene, captivating travelers from around the world.
Congratulations on Azerai Ke Ga Bay being named the runner-up in the “Most Instagrammable Hotel in the World” contest! What do you think made the resort stand out to voters around the globe?
I believe this could be attributed to the unique blend of elements offered by the resort. Its contemporary design and lush gardens including a tropical forest walk at it’s heart, combined with Al Fresco bay view dining and infinity pool provide very evocative imagery. It may be the emotive response that each individual element of design and nature prompted which built to lead to the successful outcome.
How does the resort’s natural location—between Hon Ba Island and the sand dunes—contribute to both the guest experience and its photogenic appeal?
Hon Ba Island is the key feature of Ke Ga Bay and its lighthouse in a well-known landmark image in Vietnam for generations and provides a powerful photographic appeal. The attraction is greatest during sunrise with its light being the first main feature of the bay to be lit after the sun rises over the hills, at dusk as the last rays of the day color it red it blinks as it mirrors the blinking lights of the fishing boats in the bay. These two features enhance the visual appeal of the resort as guests picture themselves relaxing poolside while enjoying a spectacular bay and sunset view. The Sand Dune is also the suns cradle at sunset as the light of day fades behind its silhouette.
Azerai Ke Ga Bay was crowned the most Instagrammable hotel in the Eastern Hemisphere and Asia-Pacific. How important is social media visibility in your branding and guest engagement strategy?
This is an extremely helpful social media marketing tool for a small boutique luxury property such as ours. When competing with larger corporate brands for consumer attention, recognition such as this enables us to widen our property exposure to markets where we may have limited marketing awareness and helps to break down that barrier. As Social Media revolves around exposure to popular elements which may travelers then choose to emulate, this provides a rare opportunity to share our message with a wider audience. This is why this has such importance to us as it not only acknowledged the beauty and characteristics of the resort and destination but the recognition also serves as an external recommendation of the aesthetic experience within our resort.
Can you share more about the sunken lounge and infinity pool area that featured in the contest image? What was the design philosophy behind this space?
At the time of the redesign the vision was clear, to create a seamless indoor/outdoor experience throughout the property. From the accommodation to the public, dining and wellness spaces nowhere is this vision more evident than in the Sunken Lounge and at the infinity pool which together showcase the beauty of the natural features of our location. From the vastness of the sky to the bay with its unique features and views to the horizon, these create space for our guests to disconnect from their busy lives and drift away to themselves with a good book as they enjoy cloudscapes by day, the sunsets at dusk and the Star-scapes at night so often absent from their lives in the city.
With the recent addition of outdoor sunrise yoga sessions, how is Azerai Ke Ga Bay expanding its wellness offerings in response to evolving guest preferences?
Our resort management team all engage directly in the operation and have a high level of guest interaction to maximize the opportunity to hear our guest views and thoughts. These interactions led to the addition of Yoga sessions to our selection and also to the introduction of additional active experiences such as guided kayaking and local fishing experiences. We will continue to focus on the evolution of our wellness offering over the coming months to further enhance this aspect of our property.
You’ve also introduced golf packages in collaboration with Azerai La Residence, Hue. How does this offering align with your overall approach to luxury lifestyle experiences?
I feel this is well aligned with our lifestyle experience approach as Golf is an essential need for several of our guests. We recognize that the needs and preferences of each individual guest differs so avoid pre-definition of the guest to a “norm” and prefer to ensure that each and every guest is able to fully experience both the resort and location through the medium they desire. This is achieved by maximizing the choices for guest while on resort. The Golf option addresses one of these important needs.
Being part of Adrian Zecha’s boutique Azerai portfolio, how do you balance the legacy of luxury with the contemporary expectations of today’s travelers?
Today’s traveler is more diverse and flexible in needs than in the past, luxury is now also driven more by personal desires, values and preference rather than any pre conceived luxury definition. Mr Zecha recognized this and rather than following in the footsteps of others chose to step outside of the norm and design properties for those seeking something extra, whether it be humanity, engagement, culture, design, wellness, nature or authenticity. Intentionally situated in regional areas our Brand invites travellers to engage and discover a different Vietnam to that of the past, one which embraces and connects with the rhythm and flow of the community outside our gate and along our beach. By merging design, nature, regional culinary techniques and community engagement our property provides a canvas for each guest to paint their personal holiday experience. Luxury hospitality has evolved through many cycles over generations and even today evidence of each style is still represented the modern industry. While our industry is once of change, client expectations in terms of service, care, innovation and quality remain constant and must underpin any luxury operation. We are committed to these and believe the modern traveler seeks approachable yet inspiring design, curated environments which echo a natural feel of the humanity of the destination and real interaction as it is these elements which imprint a unique memory for guest to carry home.
What’s next for Azerai Ke Ga Bay in terms of new guest experiences, partnerships, or destination-focused offerings that we can look forward to in 2025?
Although the core offering for 2025 is already established, over the balance of 2025 Azerai we will continue focusing our attention further on our wellness offering in terms of both activities, packages and experiences. We will also be developing additional experiential dining options for guests to enjoy while increasing our partnerships with quality destination partners as part of our ongoing commitment to sustainable development. These include a local boutique coffee roaster, Local Distillery and Ice Cream supplier. All have International management but operations were developed and managed in country with high quality expertise. We focus our purchases to those products which have been sourced and produced in Vietnam as part of our ongoing commitment to giving back to the community.
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