Tourist influx to drive hotel industry growth

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu's hotel industry will see more brands coming in the next five years, which should complement the growth in tourist arrivals, an industry executive said.

In a recent interview, Alfred Reyes, general manager of Bai Hotel, expressed his optimism on the continued growth of Cebu's hotel sector supported by the rising tourist arrivals in the province.

Reyes, who has been a hotelier for almost three decades now, said Cebu's visitor arrivals will continue to increase with the expected completion of the second terminal at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.

This in turn should drive demand in the hotel industry, he said.

He noted the Dusit and Ascott brands are among the hotel brands coming to Cebu in the next few years, citing that he also heard on the possible entry of Hyatt hotel brand in Cebu.

"If these changes start to come in, Cebu is expected to boom again," he said.

"I'm very optimistic about Cebu's tourist arrivals. When the airport increases, it automatically gives opportunities to bring in more international airlines," the hotelier said.

In particular, Reyes cited the potential growth of Cebu's North Reclamation Area (NRA) where various developments are ongoing, namely the mixed-use developments Mandani Bay and Gatewalk Central.

NRA is also home to some malls and Cebu's newest hospitals.

Reyes said NRA has so much potential for the hotel sector's expansion.

He believes NRA is the new growth center in Cebu, outside its main business districts the Cebu Business Park and Cebu IT Park.

Bai Hotel is the newest hotel that opened in NRA, targeting to open over 600 rooms by the end of this year. The hotel, a member of the Europe-based Worldhotels, also has 12 conference and meeting rooms and has six hotel-operated dining restaurants.

"I think there's a need for more hotel rooms especially in this part of Cebu," he said.

Reyes said he is positive on the prospects next year, citing in particular that Bai Hotel is looking to attract more foreign visitors as more Chinese tourists are coming to Cebu.

He said the foreign tourist market continues to present opportunities with more international airlines are coming to Cebu.

According to preliminary data from the Department of Tourism, tourist arrivals in Central Visayas went down by 3.02 percent between January and April this year, partly attributed to the travel advisories issued by some countries such as US, UK, Japan and Korea due to terrorism threats in the Philippines.

Central Visayas welcomed 2 million tourists in the first four months of 2017, down 3.02 percent compared to the 2.1 during the same period last year. (FREEMAN)