Waterfront Philippines hotels to undergo face-lift
WATERFRONT Philippines, Inc. is undertaking a massive renovation of its hotels in Manila, Cebu City, Mactan island, and Davao City, as it seeks to grab a bigger piece of the growing tourism market.
“We’re gearing towards that tourism boom, especially in Cebu. With the aim of the DoT ( Department of Tourism) to increase the number of tourists coming in, we want to capitalize on that,” Waterfront Philippines President Kenneth T. Gatchalian said in a roundtable interview at the Waterfront Pavilion Hotel & Casino Manila (Manila Pavilion) on Tuesday.
Mr. Gatchalian said the company is allocating a total of P1.65 billion for the renovation of the Manila Pavilion ( P350 million), Waterfront Cebu City Casino Hotel ( P400 million), Waterfront Airport Hotel and Casino Mactan (P450 million), and Waterfront Insular Hotel Davao (P450 million).
On Tuesday, Waterfront Philippines told the stock exchange its board of directors approved the hotel renovation plans, which will be funded “via a combination of internal funds, debt notes and the issuance of unsubscribed common shares under a private placement.”
For Manila Pavilion, Mr. Gatchalian said the hotel is already undergoing interior and exterior renovation, as it tries to compete with the new integrated casino-resorts in Entertainment City.
“It’s difficult to compete with them right now, since the integrated resorts have full-blown facilities… For us, we’re retrofitting a lot of it… So we have to do it slowly, one step at a time,” he said.
The renovation of Waterfront hotel in Cebu City is expected to start early next year, while the work on the hotel in Lapu- Lapu City, Mactan will begin by mid 2018.
“In Waterfront Cebu City, our Convention Center is our pride and basically it’s our bread- and- butter. With the competition in Cebu, we opted to start renovating our facilities, and the first phase of it will be our Convention Block. We earmarked around P400 million for it,” Mr. Gatchalian said.
The Waterfront Airport Hotel and Casino Mactan, located in front of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, has been enjoying high occupancy, thanks to the increasing number of tourists flocking to the province.
“(The Mactan hotel’s) average occupancy for the year is 97%. It means we’re already having shortage in supply. We plan to expand in the future, but in the meantime, we need to upgrade, since our hotel has been there for quite some time. We want to have a new phase for all our properties,” Mr. Gatchalian said.
The Insular Hotel in Davao City will also undergo interior renovation and landscape remodeling by the middle of 2018.
Mr. Gatchalian said the company is targeting to increase its revenues by 10% this year.
“Every year, our target is to increase by 10%… We’re streamlining our operations, lowering our cost centers, control manpower expenses, lower energy, and internally, we are able to hit that. For the first six months of 2017, we already increased (revenues) by 5%, unaudited… Hopefully, by the end of the year, we will hit the 10% growth,” he said.
In its first quarter financial report, Waterfront Philippines reported an attributable net income of P140.66 million, 27% higher than the P111.92 million during the same period last year.
Revenues from hotels for the January to March period grew 4% to P556.29 million, while costs and expenses fell by 1% to P326.45 million. The hotels in Cebu City and Mactan saw high occupancy during January and February amid the Sinulog festival and the Chinese New Year celebrations. The growing Meetings, Incentives, conferences and Exhibitions ( MICE) market was also cited as a driving revenues higher.
Shares in Waterfront Philippines fell 11 centavos or 8% to close at P1.27 apiece on Tuesday. —