MANILA, Philippines —Billionaire Andrew Tan’s Megaworld Corp. is pushing deeper into tourism with the launch of its 20th hospitality project, the Paragua Sands Hotel, which will rise in their sprawling beachfront township in San Vicente, Palawan.
The 10-story Paragua Sands is expected to open in 2029, and is part of the builder’s aggressive goal to increase their hotel footprint by over half to 11,000 rooms within five years.
The project will have 313 rooms, ranging from standard 32 square meter accommodations to the 140-square-meter Presidential Suite. Paragua Sands will also offer specially-abled suites for guests who need special room arrangements. These rooms will feature varying views of the nearby mountains and Pagdanan Bay.
“We are very excited to introduce our 20th hotel property in our portfolio, and what better destination to host it than in San Vicente, Palawan, which is home to the longest beachline in the country and the second longest in the entire Southeast Asia,” Megaworld Hotels and Resorts managing director Cleofe Albiso said in a statement.
Tourism on a rebound
Builders are racing to capture demand for hotel and leisure facilities as tourism ramps up.
Cristina Ulang, research head at First Metro Investment Corp., said in a media briefing last week that the tourism business is rebounding.
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The Philippines “had 5.4 million tourists last year (and) hopefully we are able to recover back to the record which is 8 million,” Ulang said.
Megaworld, the leading operator of homegrown hotel brands, is on track to open the biggest hotel in the country, the 1,530-room Grand Westside Hotel along Manila.
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Out of the 20 hotel properties launched, 12 are operational with about 5,000 hotel rooms. These are Richmonde Hotel Ortigas, Eastwood Richmonde Hotel, Richmonde Hotel Iloilo, Savoy Hotel Newport, Savoy Hotel Boracay, Savoy Hotel Mactan Newtown, Belmont Hotel Manila, Belmont Hotel Boracay, Belmont Hotel Mactan, Kingsford Hotel Manila, Twin Lakes Hotel in Laurel, Batangas near Tagaytay, and Hotel Lucky Chinatown in Binondo, Manila.
Higher hotel occupancy rates contributed to Megaworld’s 43-percent profit spike to P12 billion during the first nine months of 2023. Total revenues during the period rose 14 percent to P48.6 billion.