LEISURE travel and the conferences business will likely boost revenues of the hospitality sector in 2022, even as business travel is expected to remain sluggish.
This was the forecast of Al Legaspi, President and Chief Officer of AyalaLand Hotels and Resorts Corp., in a recent online presser of the Philippine Hotel Owners Association (PHOA). “There is tremendous pent-up demand for leisure travel as early as now, so we’re confident this will carry through on 2022,” he said. “Business travel may not pick up that fast, but eventually it will, because companies and corporations overseas will have to visit their principals here. So hotels just have to redirect their marketing efforts and capture the leisure and MICE [Meetings Incentives Conventions Exhibitions] markets. That’s also a strong potential market for us. It’s been strong in the past for us and even stronger moving forward,” said Legaspi, who is also PHOA’s Vice President for Internal Affairs.
This was echoed by Peggy Angeles, Executive Vice President of the SM Hotels and Conventions Corp. “Business travel, as Al [Legaspi] said, would not be that strong, it is the domestic tourism. Small MICE business is coming back, particularly this
December when…small social events, particularly small family reunions, are being reactivated.”
She added that the growing number of social events stems from the increased confidence of many Filipinos because more have been vaccinated, or in most cases, many have received booster shots. “So, barring any variants into the country, 2022 should be a good recovery year—not quite prepandemic days, but much, much better than 2021.”
Angeles, who is also board director of PHOA, noted, “November was the best month in the last 11 months, in terms of revenue performance for our group, and I would think, that will be the same as other hotel groups,” laying the foundation for the hotel association’s optimistic outlook for 2022.
Legaspi said he foresees the quarantine business of most hotels “tapering off in the next quarter or so, hopefully with the improving Covid situation.”
Latest data from the Department of Health indicated, however, an average of 115 new Covid-19 cases in Metro Manila from December 20 to 26, up 49 percent from the 77 average daily cases from December 13 to 19.