THE rising number of tourist arrivals in the country is encouraging the hotel division of SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) to look for sites in Palawan and Bohol for potential expansion.

In an interview, hotel investments group senior vice president Merril Yu said the Sy-led company is exploring options and is looking for properties that are suitable for the expansion of their hotel business.

“Tourism is the way to go. We are very excited about the growth of this sector,” he said.

SM Hotels has launched a P650-million expansion program for its Taal Vista Hotel in Tagaytay. It is also completing this year the P2.6-billion Sofitel Cebu Hotel to be operated by the Accor Group chain. Accor runs nearly 4,000 hotels worldwide. Its brands include Sofitel, Novotel and Grand Mercure.

Also in the pipeline is the two-hotel complex to be put up near the SM Mall of Asia. The P2.4-billion structure, to be built by SMIC subsidiary Hotel Specialists Inc., is designed to have one wing with 500 up-market guestrooms to be managed by Radisson, and another wing, The Regent, with 80 luxury suites.  Both hotels are under the Carlson Hotels Asia-Pacific.

The Carlson Group is a leading consumer-services provider in the marketing, travel and hospitality industries. It owns the T.G.I. Friday’s and Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands, among others.

A resort hotel is, likewise,  on the drawing board for Hamilo Coast’s Pico de Loro, envisioned to be an upscale hotel with 154 guest rooms. Negotiations are under way to appoint its hotel operator. Hamilo is a mixed-use project sprawling over a 5,700-hectare property in Batangas.

The hotels division is also spending about P280 million to start the construction this year of two businessman’s hotels to be located near the SM shopping malls. Yu said they are set to ground-break in the second half the two sites for the hotels.

One hotel will have 50 rooms and the other one 150 rooms. Talks are ongoing with some local and foreign operators to run the hotels.

The plan of SM Hotels is to build 14 businessman’s hotels over the next five years. The company embarked on this segment to bolster its position in the country’s growing tourism industry.

The move to put the hotels near the SM shopping malls will make them more enticing to clients, Yu added.

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SM unit eyes hotel sites in Palawan, Bohol

THE rising number of tourist arrivals in the country is encouraging the hotel division of SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) to look for sites in Palawan and Bohol for potential expansion.

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