Andrew Tan. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – Real estate tycoon Andrew Tan sees his Alliance Global Group scaling up its hotel portfolio to 12,000 rooms or about six times the current capacity by the year 2020, then seen catapulted to be the country’s largest hotel developer.
Tan unveiled this plan to aggressively invest in tourism-oriented property on Tuesday night when he received the citation “Real Estate Personality of the Year” Award at the Philippines Property Awards 2014.
“In support of tourism, through our group subsidiaries Megaworld Corp. and Travellers International Hotel group, we are set to build more hotels to accommodate more tourist arrivals,” Tan said.
The 12,000 hotel rooms envisioned by 2020 will accommodate about two million tourists per year. “This is one way we can help the government achieve its yearly tourist targets,” he said.
Tan said these hotel rooms would be offered under 12 different local and global hotel brands. The global brands include Marriott, Hilton, Sheraton, Westin, Okura and Maxim’s.
At present, the group has 1,900 rooms in its hotel portfolio across Ortigas, Eastwood City, Newport City and Boracay.
“To meet our 2020 goal, we have set an aggressive expansion plan to build 10,000 new hotel rooms across our developments. These will include 2,000 rooms in Newport City, 2,800 rooms in Bayshore City (upcoming project in Pagcor Entertainment City), 1,900 rooms in Boracay Newcoast, 2,700 in Mactan Newtown, 470 rooms in Iloilo and 230 rooms in Tagaytay and other parts of Metro Manila,” Tan said.
In his acceptance speech, Tan thanked the guest speaker Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez for “creating awareness for the country in a big way.” “Because of your efforts, the world has taken notice of what we have to offer as a tourist destination. What you have accomplished is truly inspiring,” he said.
Tan noted that tourism has continued to be a major contributor to the Philippines gross domestic product and that President Aquino himself believed that tourism has become “the low hanging fruit of our economy.”
“Our very own Secretary Jimenez said recently that tourism is the new agriculture for the Philippines,” Tan said, adding “I agree with the Secretary that it is one of those industries that will deliver inclusive growth.”
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