Cebu hotels performance at all-time-high in 2014

CEBU, Philippines- Major hotels in Cebu reported an all-time-high performance in 2014 owing to the strengthening of Cebu's positioning as preferred destination for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibition (MICE) events.

Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu, Cebu City Marriott Hotel, and Shangri-La's Mactan Resort and Spa registered high occupancy rates and revenue performances, describing 2014 as their best performing year ever.

Hoteliers attributed the cancelled MICE and other corporate events in 2013 due to calamities, as one of the strong contributors that made 2014 the banner year especially for international hotel chains.

Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu general manager Nishan Silva said that the 400-room hotel posted a 75 percent average occupancy rate for the entire year, with 35 percent profit jump.

According to Silva, the hotel surpassed every parameter target of its several revenue streams, led by the room and food and beverage revenues.

Several attractive promotions and concept specialty events, complemented by constant improvement of products and services, further stimulated the vibrant 2014 hotel business.

Likewise, Cebu City Marriott Hotel general manager Patrick Carroll said that aside from the non-stop MICE and corporate events held last year, the enormous growth of the outsourcing sector in Cebu and obvious increased of leisure tourist arrivals from domestic and foreign markets also pulled hotel business up,

The 299-room hotel ended 2014 with average occupancy rate of 75 percent. Its high revenue performance is driven by impressive contribution from rooms and banquet businesses.

"There were a lot of medical missions last year, meetings and businesses mostly from the outsourcing companies with operations in Cebu Business Park and Cebu IT Park," he said.

Carroll said 2014 saw many meetings and group activities which he said could be the meetings and events that were cancelled due to the calamities in the last quarter of 2013.

The largest resort in Cebu in terms of accommodation—Shangri-La's Mactan Resort and Spa also posted its highest average occupancy rate and revenue generation in 2014.

The resort's director of sales and marketing Albert Lafuente, reported that the hotel posted 77 percent average occupancy rate of its total 530 guest rooms.

Food and beverage revenue contributed 60 percent of the resort's over-all business, Lafuente said.

According to Lafuente, the resort saw the most number of MICE events in 2014.

As of November of last year, Central Visayas region logged a total of  3.42 million arrivals, a 6.86 percent higher than that of the same period in 2013.

Domestic travelers top the list with 59.94 percent share or a total of 2.05 million.

According to DOT-7 regional director Rowena Montecillo, Koreans remain the top tourist market with 45.5 percent share of the total 1.36 million foreign tourists that visited the region last year.

Other top markets include Japan (18.59 percent), United States of America (10.38 percent), China (5.13 percent) and Australia (3.85 percent).

Cebu remains the top destination of choice in the region with 2.5 million tourists followed by Negros Oriental with 470,453 tourists, Bohol with 397,682 and Siquijor with 37,326. (FREEMAN)