PLENTY OF ROOM TO INVEST IN HOSPITALITY, TOURISM CONSULTANT POINTS OUT
Robert “Bobby” Joseph says ties with other countries will boost foreign arrivals and increase demand for facilities Property consulting firm Colliers International earlier recommended the addition of hotel rooms.
With the number of arrivals rising fast, a Department of Tourism consultant observed that it’s a good time to invest in the hospitality sector. “We need to build or add more rooms for more tourists,” said tourism consultant Robert “Bobby” Joseph, who is confident more foreign tourists will visit the country as a result of President Rodrigo Duterte’s pivot to China and a better economic relationship with other powerful economies like Japan and Russia. He suggested investing in hotels, homestay and dormitory-hotel businesses, and having them accredited by the tourism department. In Cebu, for instance, the number of domestic travelers who arrived in Mactan grew by 11.3 percent, from 2.9 million arrivals in 2015 to 3.23 million last year.
A Department of Tourism consultant is encouraging investors to invest their hard-earned money in the hospitality sector to serve the rising demand from local and foreign tourists.
“For those who have yet to decide where to put their money, I suggest they invest in the hospitality sector. We need to build or add more rooms for more tourists,” said tourism consultant Robert “Bobby” Joseph.
He is confident more foreign tourists will visit the country as a result of President Duterte’s pivot to China and better economic relationship with other powerful economies like Japan and Russia.
“If there’s one sector that would benefit from all these efforts of reaching out to other economies, it would be tourism. So we better prepare,” said Joseph.
Chinese arrivals
He said that local investors may cash in on hotels, homestay and dormitory-hotel businesses and have them accredited by the DOT.
The tourism department expects around one million Chinese tourists to arrive in the Philippines this year.
In its 2016 fourth quarter research, property consulting firm Colliers International recommended that the country build more three- and four-star hotels to accommodate the ris- ing number of tourists arriving in the coutry.
With the Philippines emerging as a viable location for major international events, Colliers also encouraged developers to include larger spaces for meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibits (Mice) facilities in their hospitality developments.
Moreover, Colliers is anticipating a boom in Chinese arrivals this year.
The Philippine Embassy in China noted that the number of Chinese nationals applying for tourist visas to the Philippines rose to 1,400 daily from an average of 400 per day in the third quarter of 2016.
The DOT said it is planning to stage more tourism promotions targeting the Chinese tourists and to increase connectivity to China. Earlier, the agency announced it is going to provide a visa-on-arrival to Chinese tourists this year.
Some 675,700 Chinese tourists visited the Philippines last year, up by 37.7 percent compared to 2015. China has replaced Japan as the third largest source of tourists after the United States (second) and South Korea.