New hotels to bring in more tourists

MANILA, Philippines — The development of new hotels across the country is projected to lure in more tourists into the country, a property services firm said.

 “While the new hotels address the accommodation supply gap in the market, they are also key in generating new demand as big hotel brands promote Philippine cities internationally and integrated resorts such as Okada, Solaire, City of Dreams, Resorts World Manila and the upcoming Westside City Resorts World make Manila the Las Vegas of Asia,” said Rick Santos, chairman of Santos Knight Frank.

Santos Knight Frank has dubbed the next three years as the ‘golden era of hotel construction’ given the large chunk of hotel projects to be completed between 2018 to 2021.

About 8,000 hotel rooms are expected to be completed in the next three years, half of which are slated to open this year.

Most of the new hotels are in the Bay Area, BGC and Makati, according to the property services firm.

Colliers International Philippines expects 3,400 new hotel rooms to be completed this year, more than double the 1,600 hotel rooms completed last year.

“We still expect two and three star hotels to play a major role in driving hotel room completion in Metro Manila this year,” Colliers said.

Among the upcoming hotels are the 461-room Grand Hyatt Manila, the 342-room tower 2 of Ayala’s Seda BGC Hotel, and the 125-room Dusit D2 The Fort.

While global hotel brands are continuing to expand their presence in Metro Manila, Santos Knight Frank said there are also a few that are looking for growth areas outside the capital. These include Marriott International, IHG, Hyatt, Accor, Hilton and Dusit International.

Santos Knight Frank said these major hotel brands are eyeing to put up hotels in rising tourism destinations and cities such as Clark, Baguio, Davao, La Union, Batangas and Iloilo City.

Moreover, local groups are banking on the growing leisure, business travel and MICE(meetings, incentive travel, conferences and event) market.

The property services firm cited the Ayala Group’s Seda brand, which has opened at least one hotel annually since the brand was launched, with new properties upcoming in Makati, Palawan and Cebu.