Philippines must assure tourists on safety — JLL

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines needs to assure  tourists of their security to ensure the continued growth of the sector, a property services firm said.

“Tourists will need reassuring that the attacks in Marawi City and Resorts World Manila are isolated incidents,” Jones Lang Lasalle said amid concerns over safe.

JLL, however, said they remain upbeat on the tourism sector given continued marketing efforts and infrastructure development.

Based on latest data from the Department of Tourism (DOT), tourist arrivals hit 3.93 million from January to July 2017, up 11 percent year on year.

JLL attributed the Philippines’ continued tourist arrivals growth to improved tourism marketing efforts and a series of international events such as the ASEAN@50 meetings.

The property services firm reported that overall hotel occupancy rates hovered at 67.5 percent as of July this year. Average daily rates of hotel rooms was $103, while revenue per available room was $70 during the same period.

The number of new rooms in Metro Manila is projected to hit 2,991 by yearend,  with approximately 1,846 rooms already online due to the opening of four hotels earlier this year.

“The majority of the rooms come from the 993-room Okada Manila which opened in March 2017 in the Manila Bay area,” JLL said.

Other hotels include the 438-room Seda Vertis North, 271-room Valero Grand Suites and the 144-room Hop Inn Hotel Makati Avenue Manila.

“A further 1,145 rooms in two hotels are expected to open before the end of 2017,” JLL said.

Among the hotels that are expected to open  soon are the Savoy Hotel Newport City, Sheraton Manila, Seda Circuit Makati and the Seda Bonifacio Global City Extension.