Hotel room inventory to hit 16,000 by 2021

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu is expected to hit a total of 16,000 hotel room inventory by 2021, with large growth seen in Lapu-Lapu City.

A study conducted by Colliers International Philippines revealed that capitalists are pouring investment money in building more accommodation facilities in Cebu, in anticipation of more business and leisure tourists to visit the province.

Overall accommodation stock in Metro Cebu is expected to grow by 26 percent. More rooms will be opened in Lapu-Lapu in the next two years.

At present, total room stock in the three cities (Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu) stands at 12,800. It is seen to hit 16,000 in two years.

Currently, Cebu City dominates the number of hotel rooms. It covers 59 percent or 7,540 rooms located within the City.

Lapu-Lapu City is catching up with a current total number of 3,570 rooms, getting 28 percent of the total number of accommodation in three cities.

Mandaue City on the other hand only has 1,690 hotel rooms available at present. But this is expected to grow as more hotels in Mandaue are still under construction.

Earlier, developers were urged to build more hotels in Cebu in order to accommodate the fast growing business and leisure travelers, with the aggressive push for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibition (MICE) events.

Real estate marketing specialist Anthony Gerard Leuterio said that he will convince his company’s partner developers to build hotel projects, aside from residential and commercial condominiums, as Cebu’s problem in the short is its ability to accommodate influx of more tourists.

The opening of Mactan Cebu International Airport Terminal 2 (T2) would attract more foreign arrivals and airlines to open up more direct flights from different destinations around the world.

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

Leuterio who founded Filipino Homes, a comprehensive property solutions company, which has a network of over 13 agents around the country, is now trying to help Cebu’s tourism industry to catch up with the fast growth by advocating the building of more hotel rooms.