Gotianun firm to put up luxury hotel in Boracay

Gotianun-led Filinvest Development Corp., keen on expanding its tourism-oriented property business in key areas across the country, is planning a 200-room luxury hotel on Boracay island, which will be the third under its homegrown Crimson hospitality brand.

The first Crimson hotel is located at Mactan while a second Crimson hotel opened in end-2012 in Filinvest City, Alabang.

“All is set and go for the planning of our Crimson Resort and Spa Boracay,” FDC president Josephine Gotianun-Yap reported to stockholders during the company’s annual meeting on Friday.

With the creation of FDC Hotels Corp., the company “aims to bring the Filinvest brand of hospitality to more exciting Philippine destinations,” she said.

In 2012, the group also opened a new hotel brand—the Quest Hotel and Conference Center Cebu. “By opening two new hotels within the year, the company made waves in the hospitality industry in 2012,” Yap said.

FDC’s hotels are managed by Filiarchipelago Hospitality Inc. (FHI), a 60-40 percent joint venture with Aston International of Singapore. The venture had 1,062 rooms under its management as of end-2012.

After the stockholders’ meeting, Yap told reporters that the group was on the lookout for new areas to develop for the hospitality business. “We’re looking. Of course, Palawan is also important and so is Bohol. Those are the key areas but we have to find the right property,” she said.

For the upcoming Boracay project, Yap said the beachfront property would have a private beach shared only with Shangri-La Boracay and another hotel.

“We are in the final stages of completing the plans,” said FDC chairman Jonathan Gotianun. “We want to make it a little different. There are a lot of resorts in Boracay but we don’t want to do just another hotel. We want to aim for better qualities of hotel.”

Gotianun said the property would sit on a three-hectare property near Shangri-La.

Yap noted that FDC Hotels’ Crimson Hotel Mactan had received “certificates of excellence” from international travel website TripAdvisor in 2012 and 2013. Crimson Mactan was also on the recommend list of Conde Nast Johansens and a nominee of World Luxury Hotels Awards in 2013.

About 70-80 percent of Crimson Mactan customers comprise foreign tourists, for now predominantly Korean but with an increasing mix if Japanese, Australian, Chinese and even Russian tourists.