New hotel banks on corporate guests

A new business hotel has opened in Cebu City amid the growth in the business traveler market and the tourism sector as well.

Mezzo Hotel is adding up 186 rooms to Cebu's accommodation sector which has seen a rising demand in recent years amid the tourism boom.

"We're banking on business travelers and the corporate market. Cebu is a hub for conventions. It's a growing market in Cebu," Aneth Galoy, general manager, said in an interview last Saturday.

She said Cebu has grown to be a leisure and business destination in Visayas, thus the need for more accommodation facilities.

The growing MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) market is also seeking for more available MICE venues.

The city hotel, located in F. Cabahug St., has two ballrooms with a total capacity of 1,000 guests and four function rooms.

Hotel president Shannen Tan said expanding her family's hotel business in the future is always an option given the potential growth of Cebu's hotel sector.

"Definitely that's always an option for us. We see the tourism industry continue growing. That could be an opportunity for us to open a new and expand," she said.

Tan's Filipino-Chinese family also has interest in the existing Sarrosa International Hotel.

In a recent research, Pinnacle Real Estate Consulting Services noted that the healthy occupancy and room-rate level bode well for the Cebu hotel market.

Pinnacle estimates the Metro Cebu market has a total of approximately 9,500 hotel rooms with star-classification. This total stock as of 2016 grew from 7,800 rooms in 2015, or an increase of 22 percent.

Even with the increase, average occupancy increased to 90 percent last year, as compared to 85 percent in 2015, the property consultant said.

In terms of room rates, deluxe hotels have an average room rate of P3,800 per night. There is an increase of 9%, from P3,500 per night, even when new hotel rooms were opened to the public.

Colliers International earlier said that aside from infrastructure development, other key developments that should boost Cebu’s tourism sector include the lowering of airfares as airlines compete for bigger market share; approval of the ASEAN Multilateral Agreement in Air Services that allows Philippine air carriers to fly an unlimited number of times to the capital cities of other Southeast Asian nations; and Cebu’s emergence as a key MICE destination.

Over the past three years, Cebu successfully hosted a number of major international events such as APEC ministerial meetings, International Eucharistic Congress, and preliminary events of the recently-concluded Miss Universe pageant and ASEAN 2017 meetings.

"With growing interest in Cebu as a MICE destination in the region, we encourage developers to apportion a bigger space for conference rooms and other similar facilities,” Gerard Padriga, general manager of Colliers Cebu office, said.

Source: http://www.philstar.com/cebu-business/2017/05/08/1697655/new-hotel-banks-corporate-guests