SM group boosts hotel line, sees great potential in PH tourism sector

The group of tycoon Henry Sy plans to build one new hotel property in the country each year, mostly under the mid-scale Park Inn brand, to harness growing opportunities in the Philippines’ tourism sector.

After the opening in March of the first Park Inn by Radisson in Davao that added 204 rooms to the group’s hotel portfolio, next in the pipeline are Clark in Pampanga and Bacolod and Iloilo in the Visayas, SM Hotels and Conventions Corp. (SMHCC) executive vice president Reynaldo Villar said in a roundtable discussion on Monday organized by the Philippine Stock Exchange and Asiamoney magazine.

“The plan is to build one property a year and we’re looking at areas where we have malls because that’s our anchor,” Villar said.

Park Inn by Radisson is Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group’s full-service mid-market global brand with 126 hotels in operation and 53 hotels under development, as of March 2013.

After the roundtable, Villar said the Park Inn hotel to be built by SMHCC in Clark is a 175-200-room property targeted to open by the end of next year, near the SM mall in the area.

He said Park Inn Iloilo was still on the drawing board and that the company could not say for certain if this would be built ahead of another hotel in Bacolod.

The SM group, meanwhile, has also signed up international hotelier Hilton Worldwide to run its future flagship hotel—a luxury 350-room hotel property – Conrad Manila – that will open to the public at the MOA complex by mid-2015.

This will be the first property in the country under the Conrad brand, Hilton Worldwide’s global luxury brand.

Other hotels in SMHCC’s portfolio are Radisson Blu in Cebu, Taal Vista Hotel in Tagaytay, and Pico Sands at Hamilo’s Pico de Loro Resort in Nasugbu, Batangas.