Cebu Grand Hotel to add more rooms

The Cebu Grand Hotel is expanding its footprint in the hospitality industry.

Carlo Suarez, the hotel’s general manager, announced yesterday that they are constructing an additional 50 rooms and small function rooms to address Cebu’s growing demand in the leisure and meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (Mice) markets.

Suarez said the company, BF Management Corp., is earmarking P75 million for the hotel’s expansion, which is scheduled for completion in September 2018.

Cebu Grand Hotel has about 100 rooms, six function rooms and two board rooms. Its ballroom can accommodate up to 400 people.

It is situated at Vibo Place, an integrated business and entertainment enclave on N. Escario Street, Cebu City, adjacent to the new Axis Entertainment Avenue.

According to Suarez, the hotel is enjoying a healthy occupancy of between 60 and 65 percent monthly.

He attributes this steady growth to Cebu’s vibrant tourism sector.

Suarez, who is also the president of Hotel, Resort and Restau- rant Association of Cebu (HRRAC), said the hotel supply is growing rapidly, both in Cebu and Mactan on the back of the anticipated influx of more tourists expected to visit Cebu as soon as the Terminal 2 of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport opens by June 2018.

Cebu’s direct connection to major tourism markets is also another driver of growth.

The growth in supply means that Cebu is heading to a more promising tourism industry next year, as local players expand their footprint and more foreign brands enter Cebu, said Suarez.

Any expansion in the hotel industry, he added, also means more jobs to generate for Cebu.