In a bid to boost tourism facilities to accommodate the growing influx of foreign and domestic tourists in Visayas, the Board of Investments (BOI) recently approved the Php392.7 million hotel project of GOTHONG SOUTHERN PROPERTIES INC. in Cebu City and the Php35 million hotel project of LEGAZPI MEI LI INC. in Legazpi City. These hotels were endorsed by the Department of Tourism (DOT) for registration as tourist accommodation facilities under the 2017 Investment Priorities Plan (IPP).
“These hotels will cater to both local and foreign tourists coming to Cebu and the rest of Central Visayas as with Legazpi City and the Bicol region. These will fuel the robust economies of Cebu and Bicol as developers partake a slice of the areas’ huge tourist markets, which are among the top destinations in the country,” Trade Secretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo said.
Gothong Southern Properties Inc. is constructing a ten-storey, 192-room, two-star hotel located at Wilson St, Lahug, Cebu City. The hotel will be called “Yello! Hotel.” It is strategically located in Lahug district of Cebu City, where a number of popular hotels in the City are located. Existing popular restaurants, coffee shops, shopping malls are just in the vicinity of the proposed hotel site. The hotel will be built on a 1,064 square meters property of Gothong. It will have a total floor area of 7,621 square meters when operations start on January 2019 with 76 employees on board. The 192 guest rooms will be broken down into 9 Executive Rooms, 17 Deluxe Rooms; and 166 Standard Rooms, 3 rooms are allocated for PWD in compliance with BP 344 (Accessibility Law). Aside from the 192 guest rooms there will be coffee shop, bar and restaurant, a swimming pool, and three function rooms which can be collapsed into one bigger function room.
Legazpi Meil Li Inc.’s hotel is dubbed as “The Marison Hotel.” It is a three-storey modern-style hotel with more or less 117 rooms to accommodate tourists and locals and located just few hundred meters away from the domestic airport. It is a stone’s throw away from Redemptorist Monastery, Central Land Transport Terminal and the soon-to-rise SM City Legazpi. The ground floor of the edifice will house more or less twenty various commercial establishments designed to cater the needs of hotel guests. The owners say the hotel is envisioned as the prime provider of luxurious accommodations and satisfying service at affordable prices. It is slated to start operations in February 2018 with 39 personnel.
Under the National Tourism Development Plan, the government through the DOT aims to step up the tourism sector with targets of 12 million foreign arrivals and 89.2 million domestic travelers by 2022. For this year, DOT projects around 6.5 to 7 million foreign tourist arrivals and 73.3 million domestic travelers. The latest DOT figures show that 3.4 million foreigners have visited the country from January to June 2017, higher by nearly 400,000 compared to last year’s 3 million tourists in the same period. (DTI-PR)
