More hotels needed in provinces

The Department of Tourism (DOT) is urging foreign investors to enter the provincial hotel market to address the growing accommodation gap.

Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon Teo said foreign investors, particularly the Chinese, continue to express interest in doing business in the country.

“They would always ask me where to invest and I would always say Bohol, Cebu, Palawan – in our provinces,” she said.

“I even told them to build more hotels in the provinces because there are already a lot in Manila,” she said.

Bohol Gov. Edgar Chatto said the province’s hotel market has recently been receiving interest from investors both local and foreign.

“Not only local there are many investors coming in that are from other provinces and other islands,” Chatto said.

He added that with the completion of the Panglao International Airport this year, there are international hotel brands eyeing to enter the provincial market.

Teo earlier identified Bohol, along with Davao, as potential locations for hotel investments due to the lack of five-star hotels in the area.

The need for more hotels in the country is driven by the growing number of tourists visiting the country.

At end-October, foreign arrivals have reached 5.47 million, an 11.54 percent rise from 4.91 million in the previous year.

Based on earlier news reports, DOT director for the Office of Tourism Development Planning, Research and Information Management Milagros Say said the Philippines needs to build 128,000 new hotel rooms by 2022 to meet accommodation requirements of tourists targeted by the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP).

Under the NTDP, the DOT is expecting the number of foreign arrivals to hit 12 million and the number of domestic tourists to reach 89 million by 2022.

Say said most of the backlog is located in central Philippines where most of the good beaches are located.