Developers urged: Build more hotels

CEBU, Philippines — A real estate expert has urged developers to build more hotels in Cebu to accommodate the rising influx of business and leisure travelers with the government’s aggressive push for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibition (MICE) events.

Real estate marketing specialist Anthony Gerard Leuterio said he will convince his company’s partner developers to embark on more hotel projects, aside from residential and commercial condominiums, to cope with the entry of more tourists.

The opening of Mactan Cebu International Airport Terminal 2 (T2) is attracting more foreign visitors as it would trigger more airline companies to open up more direct flights from around the world.

According to Leuterio, developers should take advantage of the tourism opportunity and building hotels is as lucrative as selling residential condominiums.

Leuterio, who founded the Filipino Homes, a comprehensive property solutions company with a network of over 13 agents around the country, is helping Cebu’s tourism industry by advocating the building of more hotel rooms.

Hotel Rooms

Meanwhile, tourism advocate and Network of Independent Travel Agencies (NITAS) chairman emeritus Robert Lim Joseph said with 16,000 rooms, Metro Cebu could hardly accommodate the influx of visitors for MICE events.

The government has been training its sights on MICE to attract more visitors.

As the Department of Tourism is vigorously pushing for MICE events, Cebu may face a “good problem” in accommodation shortage.

But while this poses a hiccup in tourism growth, this is also a timely opportunity for capitalists to invest in building more accommodation facilities, specifically in the metropolitan districts.

Province-wide, Cebu logs 24,000 rooms available for transients, including the small pension houses.