Dusit Group sees 15 hotels in PH in 3 years

Dusit International, Asia’s most recognizable hospitality brand, sees 15 hotels in the Philippines over the next three years as it looks outside of Metro Manila, making the Philippines its biggest concentration outside of China.

Philippine Hoteliers, Inc. ViceChairman and President Evelyn Singson revealed this plan after the contract-signing between Dusit International and property developer RCL Realty and Consulting Services, Inc., and Brightbeam Corp. for the Thai Group to manage and operate dusitD2 Hotel at the R1 billion Waves Beach Club and Residences development in San Juan, La Union. Philippine Hoteliers Inc. is the local unit of the Dusit Group in the country.

Dusit has only one operating hotel in the country Dusit Thani, its five-star brand located in Makati. Its others are still under construction, including three hotels, two of which are located in Davao with the Lorenzo family for an island resort and business hotel that are expected to open next year. Dusit will also manage another business hotel in Cebu of the same Lorenzo family. A management contract has already been signed up for another resort hotel in Cebu with the Go family.

The group is also in discussion with possible partners, whether as company-owned or managed hotels, in Coron, Iloilo, Bohol, Vigan and Davao.

In addition, the Thai Group is investing R1.4 billion for its second company owned-hotel in the country -- dusitD2 Hotel in BGC. Singson said the new 26-story hotel will feature 125 hotel rooms and 120 serviced apartments. DusitD2 is Dusit Group’s four- star hotel brand.

DusitD2 Hotel in BGC is a unique development in the sense that apart from being a mixture of regular hotel and serviced-apartments, the Dusit Group will also establish Dusit Management Hospitality College, its first hospitality management school outside of Thailand. The school will occupy the first ten floors of the hotel.

The school, which is expected to open next year, will serve as its steady pool of hospitality workers for the group’s hotel network. Initially, it will offer short executive courses. The school has a capacity for 1,500 students.

“This is unique because our students will be working in a real operating hotel environment. This world-class hospitality school will also feature various restaurants and foreign chefs teaching specialty dishes,” Singson said.

Dusit is huge in education in Thailand where it has a full-blown hospitality college and a technical school with graduates being deployed to its hotels all over the world.

Singson explained the Thai Group has Filipino partners for the DusitD2 Hotel in BGC because a school is a nationalized industry in the Philippines. Its local partners, who owned 60 percent of this project, are big Filipino names such as the Villar Group, Vic Valdepena of Union Bank, Atty. Edilberto Bravo of UBIX, and Ricky Sy of Regent Foods. The BGC project has already been approved by the Board of Investments.

“We will be employing several people in our networks of hotel not just in the Philippines,” said Singson noting that the 538-room Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati

alone already employs 500 people.

Dusit International Chief Operations Officer Lim Boon Kwee said the Dusit Group has a total of 43 hotels in the pipeline, 20 of which are in China.

Previously, Dusit Thani, which means “town in heaven” in Thai, first concentrated in the Middle East countries before going Asia. Now, it has presence in Singapore, Vietnam, Maldives, among ASEAN countries. It has also a hotel in Maldives.

“But outside China, the Philippines is our biggest concentration now,” Lim said.

Singson added that Dusit Thani in Makati has just completed its huge renovation, “we are competing with the best in Makati.” It has been experiencing 100 percent occupancy rate having benefitted from the closure of two Makati hotels – Intercontinental and Mandarin.

Singson also said that Dusit group’s massive expansion in the Philippines is anchored on the country’s strong economic growth that has been attracting foreign investors.

“We are bullish and we’ve started looking outside because one of the advantages in the Philippines is it has plenty of beautiful places that can be developed for tourism and I don’t know of any other international hotel brands doing the way we are doing except Marriott which has a property developer partner in Megaworld,” said Singson.

Singson said there are other beautitions, ful areas in the country where Dusit has the first mover advantage. “We want to be a destination hotel where guests can stay more than one or two days,” she said.

“This is going to be very good because there is a strong confidence in the Philippines,” Lim added adding its local revenues are all being reinvested for its new projects.

Lim noted that Philippines is also becoming a destination because once hotels congregate in a particular area, they can draw a critical mass of tourists unlike when you are the lone hotel in that area.

Lim explained that the advantage of the Dusit brand is that it is a very Asian brand and Asians are known for its very gracious kind of hospitality compared to the western, whose look and service are so predictable.

“The Asian brand of hospitality is known for being a gracious host, we are not just artistic but we treat our guests as guests,” Singso said.

Singson also raised the possibility of overbuilding of hotels in Metro Manila that is why they are going into the provinces where there is a clear shortage of good accommodation facilities. In Metro Manila, the demand is more likely for four-star hotel accommodation.

Singson, who has been with the Thai Group as director since 1998 when they bought Hotel Nikko from Japan Airlines, said the trend among the young travelers is to go for a 4-star hotel because it is more practical and the service is just the same as the five-star hotel. This is one reason, the Dusit group seemed to be concentrating in the four-star hotel category. (BCM)