Northstar

WWW.TRAVELWEEKLY-ASIA.COM 9 NOV 2017 Makati skyline THE PHILIPPINE HOTEL INDUSTRY IS IN THE MIDST OF A BUILDING BLITZ WITH AN ADDITIONAL 20,000 ROOMS EXPECTED TO OPEN BY 2020. THE SUSTAINED GROWTH IN VISITOR ARRIVALS—LIKELY TO STAY IN DOUBLE-DIGIT TERRITORY—AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF MORE DESTINATIONS OUTSIDE METRO MANILA ARE SEEN TO BOOST ROOM DEMAND. hotels, in Makati and Taguig in Metro Manila and Bacolod City, next year. By 2019, three more Seda hotels—including the 350-room Seda Bay Area near Entertainment City in Pasay City—are scheduled to open. The developer is also opening its first resort, the 153-room Seda Lio resort-hotel in El Nido, Palawan this year. Megaworld Corp. is expanding its hotel portfolio this year with four new hotels opening in Metro Manila, Iloilo, and Boracay. The group announced that it is opening the 326-room Marriott Courtyard Hotel, located beside the Iloilo Convention Center, and 559-room Savoy Hotel Boracay Newcoast in Boracay within the year. The company is also scheduled to open its 684-room Savoy Newport Hotel at its leisure and entertainment complex Newport City where gaming resort Resorts World Manila is located, as well as the 93- room Hotel Lucky Chinatown in Binondo, Manila. Filinvest Land is beefing up its hotel portfolio with its 228-room Canvas Hotel in Quezon City and a 185-room Canvas Hotel in Mactan, Cebu. The developer's Crimson Hotel in Boracay, and Quest hotels in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental and Tagaytay City are scheduled to open between 2018 to 2019. Some of the planned hotel projects in the country include a 519-room Hotel 101-Davao City of Double Dragon Properties, through its Hotel of Asia, Inc. unit. The project is touted as the biggest hotel to open in Mindanao in southern Philippines, with a target opening by 2020. Aside from its Hotel 101 brand, the group, which is eyeing a portfolio of 5,000 rooms by 2020, is also the exclusive franchisee of the Chinese hotel chain JinJiang Inns in the country. Bloomberry Resorts Corp., owner-operator of the Solaire Resort and Casino, plans to start construction of its second hotel and casino project early next year in Quezon City. Berjaya Philippines, a unit of Berjaya Corp. Bhd, wants to increase its presence in the Philippines. It is looking to build a high-end hotel in Cebu to boost its Philippine hotel portfolio. The company presently operates the 223- room Berjaya Makati Hotel. T I P P I N G Tipping is traditional in many services. The standard practice is 10% of the total bill. Tipping is optional on bills that already include a 10% service charge. G E T T I N G A R O U N D You can go around the city on jeepneys, metered taxis, buses, rapid transit systems like the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) or rent-a-car services. Developers have ramped up constructions and expansions throughout the country. A snapshot of the boom: In Metro Manila, Ayala Land Hotels and Resorts has plans to expand its flagship Seda Hotel in Bonifacio Global City (BGC) with a new tower that will offer 342 rooms. It opened its 438-room Seda Vertis North in Quezon City in early 2017, and the 154-room Seda Capitol Central in Bacolod City will open in the second half of 2017. Ayala Hotels will open three more Photo Credit: Eric Beltran Photo Credit: Eric Beltran

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