“THE way I see it, the city built itself around the property” is how General Manager Anders Hallden described Waterfront Cebu City Hotel & Casino, the flagship of the Waterfront Group’s chain of hotels and casinos.
It was a quiet morning in Lahug, this despite the busy traffic of tourists checking in and out in the lobby of the sprawling property. Hallden was in a gray suit with his cup of tea, still in a haze no doubt from the night before, which saw the 20th Gatsby-inspired anniversary celebration of the hotel.
Between sips, the executive added: “It was a great vision because what was Cebu in 1993? Who would sit and think of opening this property, which is massive, at that stage? The guys who built this must’ve known something, they must already had something in the drawing board. Turns out, they were right. When this hotel opened, it was a big event that was extensively supported by the government.”
Waterfront Cebu was constructed just in time for the 1998 Asean Tourism Forum. Featuring 561 guest rooms, it is the biggest hospitality and leisure facility in Cebu.
“If there’s one thing that I can tell you, it’s that there is not one Cebuano who doesn’t know Waterfront,” Hallden said.
“We’ve been keeping up with trends and we have a lot of targets coming up, we’re updating our facilities and that’s all in the pipeline. But it’s the name, everybody knows us. The hotel has easy access to everything, and us being in the center of it all makes very much sense with this property because we’re right downtown Cebu.”
According to Hallden, the hotel has kept up with the city’s economic and industrial surge by continuously evolving to meet the demands of new lifestyles while sticking with the company philosophy that made it a staple destination in Cebu.
It has hosted a number of international entertainment segments in its two decades of operation. In 2005 it hosted the Dancesport Southeast Asian Games. In 2011 it witnessed the IBF International Featherweight title match between Rey Bautista and Heriberto Ruiz. In 2012 it became the concert venue for singers Engelbert Humperdinck, Brian McKnight, Dan Hill, Jimi Jamison and Rex Smith. “We are the only one with a capacity of up to 7,000, depending on what type of event is going to be staged. We have 16 meeting rooms, three boardrooms, the Pacific Grand Ballroom and an outdoor open-air area in the grand lagoon,” Hallden said. “To date there’s no one even close to be able to do the numbers I can do.”
Last December 8 Waterfront was chosen as one of the five Philippine recipients for the Asean’s first MICE Venue Standard Award in a Hotel Category Setting for compliance based on the requirements of the organization’s standard.
According to Hallden, the recognition helped in attracting the biggest segment of their market, which are conventions. He said, “If you’re looking at big international companies, and they see that this is an internationally recognized award, they’ll say that ‘Okay this is we’re going to go.’ We’ve been updating our facilities to accommodate even larger events. Obviously we’re starting with our banquet facilities; we’re going to revamp the whole thing, I’m just waiting for the signal but it’s some time this year. The staff is all excited, they’ve been working really hard for the past two years.”
In terms of expansion, Hallden said: “561 rooms is already a big box, and it’s sufficient for me even with the new airport coming up. We’ve been running high, I have many days where we run out of hotel rooms.”
The renovation efforts, however, has another market in mind: the millennials. “It’s the strongest market we have today but they haven’t reached their peak yet. [What I know is] they’re coming in a few years, it’s a market that will come to me.” Hallden said.
With Cebu’s proximity to many islands, beaches and heritage sites, high domestic and foreign tourist arrivals have been reported since 1990 for Cebu, in general, and Cebu City, in particular. “Ceboom,” a portmanteau of Cebu and its rapid economic development, was the conceived. The city is also a major hub for the business-process outsourcing industry, or BPOs.
When asked whether the surge of hotel brands coming in the city due to this recent growth worries him, Hallden quickly emphasized that at the end of the day, it’s still the Waterfront signature that matters.
He explained: “There’s plenty of space, the market here is very strong. The thing is, I don’t see competition as something negative. I see it as something good, which means the city itself is booming. It will be worse if hotels started to close down. Besides, it keeps you in the tube, you always have to be a step ahead. In a business sense, competition is good for me, it’s good for my clients. We’re ready.”
“Once you have the access to a place with plenty of rooms and restaurants where you can put international guests and domestic brothers, commercial spaces start to build up.” Hallden concluded. In this case, Waterfront Cebu is just that place.