NEW hospitality player 8990 Leisure and Resorts is investing P5 billion to develop a diverse line of hotels, resorts and luxury establishments, with a total of 3,000 rooms by 2023.
“The Philippine leisure and hospitality industry is on an upswing with the current administration focusing on tourism development. The launch of 8990 Leisure and Resorts definitely comes at a perfect time,” said Willie J. Uy, president and CEO of 8990 Holdings Inc.
Such an initiative is also driven by the success of the group’s two full-service hotel properties under the Azalea brand in Baguio and Boracay, each with a room inventory of 99 and 272 units, respectively.
“The same people have bought from us that also use those hotels. And a lot of them really save a lot of money just so that they can use the hotels. So we realized that there’s an opportunity, without having to sacrifice a lot in terms of their cost for transportation, cost for the room itself, and the experience of the locality,” 8990 Holdings Inc. Chairman Mariano Martinez told reporters in an interview during their launch event held recently at The Green Sun Hotel in Makati City.
“Because we’ve built up on the expertise and because we have goodwill for our buyers, we felt that they would look to us for a trusted brand or for a trusted place where they can stay,” he added.
Offering world-class accommodation services and amenities to professionals or vacationers, various brands in the pipeline include the five-star luxury family resort Adama, luxury hotel Kura and resident urban hotel Argo.
“Urban Hotel Argo is really for the explorers—those that want a comfortable room, but doesn’t want to splurge on amenities. They are there to explore the locality,” explained Lowell Yu, president of 8990 Leisure and Resorts.
Kura targets those who want the finer things and comfort on a hotel setup, while Adama is designed as a luxurious type of resort, according to him.
“But the difference of Adama compared to the rest of the resorts is all of its activities are toward a family interaction activities,” he pointed out.
These exclusive hotels and resorts will open in different parts of the country: Cebu, Makati, Davao, Palawan, Boracay, Siquijor, Alabang, Manila, Iloilo, Legazpi, Clark, Lapu-Lapu, Siargao and Baguio.
Yu said that a lot of which, particularly in Cebu, Siquijor and Alabang, will break the grounds in the first quarter of next year, as they plan to complete all their projects in 14 locations over the next five years.
8990 Leisure and Resorts is a subsidiary of publicly listed housing developer 8990 Holdings Inc.
Its success, which has seen the company acquiring a record-high net income of P3.4 billion in the first three quarters of 2018, promises a bright future for the company’s foray into the leisure and hospitality industry.
“This is a good recurring income for us,” Martinez said of 8990 Leisure and Resorts. “Moving forward over a five-year term, we want to grow it from what it is today to at least 20 to 25 percent in terms of [contribution to] gross revenues and in terms of income of the group.”