Megaworld unit spending P10 B to build Boracay, Batangas hotels

MANILA, Philippines - Megaworld subsidiary Global-Estate Resorts Inc. (GERI) is pouring in P10 billion to complete five hotels in Boracay and Alfonso, Batangas in the next three years.

This year alone, the company is alloting P6.5 billion for capital expenditures, higher than the P5 billion capex last year.

In a briefing after the company’s annual stockholders meeting yesterday, Megaworld senior vice president Jericho Go said four of the five hotels would be built in Boracay, which is expected to experience a spike in tourism with the ongoing upgrade of the Godofredo Ramos Airport in Caticlan, the gateway to the world famous tourist island.

“Tourism in Boracay will definitely get a boost because of the airport,” Go said.

GERI is putting up the four hotels within Boracay Newcoast, a 150-hectare integrated tourism and leisure township in the island, while the other one will be in Twin Lakes, a 1,200-hectare development near Tagaytay.

In all, the five hotels would translate to 1,850 rooms, including multi-level retail spaces.

In Boracay Newcoast, GERI’s hotels are 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.

On the other hand, GERI will complete its Twin Lakes Hotel in Tagaytay next year. The hotel will offer unparalleled panoramic views of the Taal Lake and a vineyard surrounding the development.

The hotels would be varied in terms of ranking and target market to cater to a wider range of clients, said Go.

Go said GERI would raise the P10 billion from internally generated funds.

In her report during the company’s stockholders meeting, GERI president Monica Salomon said GERI would strive to keep its leadership in integrated tourism and leisure states 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,” she said.

In Boracay alone, she said the company hopes to capture around 20 to 30 percent of the tourism market when the 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.