Megaworld unit earmarks P10B for 5 hotel projects

GLOBAL-ESTATE Resorts Inc. is setting aside about P10 billion to build five hotels through 2019 on expectations that tourism growth will remain robust.

Global-Estate, a subsidiary of tycoon Andrew Tan’s Megaworld Corp., said the hotels would be put up in its township projects in Boracay and in Alfonso, Batangas near Tagaytay. The hotels will offer 1,850 rooms and will have multi-level retail spaces.

It said the new projects would help it grow net income by 30 percent in 2016. Last year, profit hit P667 million, up 39 percent year-on-year.

Global-Estate said the focus would be on Boracay Island, one of the country’s most popular beach resort destinations. It said four of the new hotels would be in Boracay Newcoast, a 150-hectare integrated tourism and leisure township on the island.

These hotels include Fairways and Bluewater, which has been completed and now fully-operational; Savoy Hotel Boracay, which will be completed by the end of this year; Belmont Hotel Boracay, to be completed in 2018, and Chancellor Hotel Boracay, to be completed in 2019.

The Twin Lakes Hotel in Tagaytay, on the other hand, would be completed next year.

“We will strive to maintain our leadership in integrated tourism and leisure estates as Boracay Newcoast and Twin Lakes mature and become fully operational. With our new hotels, we hope to accommodate at least 700,000 tourists yearly in Boracay and Tagaytay,” Monica Salomon, Global-Estate president, said in a statement yesterday.

It cited a report of the World Travel and Tourism Council showing that foreign tourist arrivals in the country this year would hit 5.5 million, or an annual growth of 6.6 percent.

“This means that by 2026, foreign tourist arrivals will reach 9.19 million. This is on top of the 40 million domestic tourists who spend more on travel and leisure in the last five years,” the company noted.

“In Boracay, alone, we hope to capture 20-30 percent of the tourism market when our hotels become fully operational. Our vast Boracay Newcoast township will set the bar of a world-class island destination that Filipinos will be proud of, as far as facilities and infrastructure are concerned,” Salomon said.