By Maris Nazareno
Behind every successful tourism story in the Philippines is an inspiring narrative of how the world has come to love our brand of hospitality. Take the impressive rise of property giant Megaworld as the country’s biggest hotel developer as an example.
Since it was founded 35 years ago, Megaworld has successfully grown and expanded its hotel portfolio under Megaworld Hotels & Resorts. To date, the company now has more than 6,000 hotel room keys from 12 operating hotel properties in key tourism destinations across the archipelago.
“We take great pride in Megaworld being the biggest player in the Philippine tourism sector. Within its portfolio is the largest array of hotel properties that cater to all types of tourists and visitors. With the surge in domestic and international tourism activities, all our hotels have been experiencing high occupancy rates and much-improved average daily room rates, and these are things that continue to encourage us to invest bigger in Philippine tourism,” says Kevin Andrew L. Tan, chief executive officer, Alliance Global Group, Inc. (AGI), the parent company of Megaworld.
In Iloilo City, Megaworld will soon welcome more tourists and guests with the opening of the 12-story Belmont Hotel Iloilo, the third hotel development inside it 72-hectare Iloilo Business Park.
Featuring 405 rooms in total, Belmont Hotel Iloilo is located along the stretch of the 1.1-kilometer long Festive Walk Parade, just a walking distance to the iconic Iloilo Convention Center and the Festive Walk Mall.
Perhaps, the most notable addition to Megaworld’s growing portfolio will be the 1,530-room Grand Westside Hotel within the company’s 31-hectare Westside City township in Parañaque City. Once it opens this year, Grand Westside Hotel will bear the distinction as the Philippines’ biggest hotel development to date. It is just a short drive away from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) via the NAIA Expressway (NAIAX) and is poised to delight guests with wonderful views of the world-famous Manila Bay sunset, as well as the skylines of Makati, Manila, and Taguig City.
“We are truly excited to welcome tourists and visitors to our hotel properties across the country, be it in any of our hotels in Metro Manila, in Iloilo, Batangas, or Boracay. Last year, we had the opportunity to serve more than 1.7 million guests in our properties. We were also able to generate nearly 3,000 jobs across our developments, and we are looking to create about 1,000 more from the next three hotels that we will be opening soon. All of these allow us to make a significant impact in terms of maximizing the multiplier effect of tourism on the economy,” shares Cleofe C. Albiso, managing director, Megaworld Hotels & Resorts.
By 2029, Megaworld will further grow its hospitality portfolio with the addition of six (6) new hotel properties. These developments, which are located in Pasig City, Pampanga, Boracay, Bacolod, Iloilo, and Palawan and will bring the total number of the company’s hotel developments to 20 by then, are aimed at further solidifying the company’s market dominance in the fast-growing tourism sector.
Belmont Hotel Iloilo is among the latest hotel developments set to be opened soon by Megaworld, the only Philippine real estate development company to earn a ‘Hall of Fame’ distinction as ‘Best Developer’ after winning the Outstanding Developer Award at the Property and Real Estate Excellence Award by FIABCI Philippines for three straight years (2015, 2016, and 2017). The company was also named the ‘Best Developer’ at the prestigious Philippines Property Awards by PropertyGuru for three consecutive years (2016, 2017, and 2018).
