Thursday, June 16, 2011
CEBU City needs more international hotel chains to operate here to elevate its image in the international tourism market, an official of the Hotels, Resorts and Restaurants Association of Cebu (HRRAC) said.
HRRAC president Hans Hauri said the presence of international hotels in Cebu helps promote the province to the global market. He said it gives Cebu the edge in attracting international tourists.
“We have always wanted to promote Cebu in the global market, one thing that would help us do that is the presence of more international hotels here,” said Hauri, the general manager of Marco Polo Plaza Cebu and recently-appointed area manager of Marco Polo hotels in the Philippines.
For this to be realized, Hauri said the industry needs more investors who are willing to bring in international brands.
“We need investors who’d pay for the construction of these branded hotels,” he said.
Among international hotels that operate in Cebu are Marco Polo, Radisson Blu, Movenpick, Imperial Palace and Marriott.
Aside from increasing the number of international hotels, Hauri also said that the hotel industry should also double its efforts in marketing Cebu to fill in the growing number of rooms in Cebu.
He said the entry of new players in the industry affected existing hotels. About 700 new rooms were added to Cebu’s existing 6,000 rooms, a 12 percent growth.
“Suddenly, customers got confused,” he said.
Hauri reported that starting the middle of March, room occupancy among all hotels started to level off. He cited the Japan tragedy and other issues that caused the drop in occupancy.
Industry rates within city hotels stood at an average of 52 percent. Marco Polo’s occupancy rate was at 64 percent as of end of May, as opposed to the year-ago levels of 60 percent occupancy for city hotels and 68 percent for Marco Polo.
But with the intense competition in the market, and with the continued opening of hotels in the city, Hauri said the industry should intensify promotions for Cebu.
He said Cebu should accelerate all its tourism infrastructure development to capture all markets, including the Mice (Meetings, Incentive, Conference and Exhibition) market.
For Cebu to get ahead of the competition, Hauri said the industry should take advantage of the open skies policy and ensure safety in the sky. He said the government needs to solve the country’s aviation safety status the soonest.
The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) downgraded the Philippines to “category 2” from “category 1” in 2008 after a safety audit in November 2007, preventing Philippine carriers from expanding operations into the US. The Philippines had been in “category 1” since 2002 prior to the downgrade.
“We need to protect our airline as this is our lifeline to our survival and economic prosperity,” he said.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on June 17, 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment