Posted on 09:04 PM, April 19, 2010 [ BusinessWorld Online ]
BY JESSICA ANNE D. HERMOSA, Reporter
Boracay Regency Beach Resort -- the largest resort chain in Aklan province -- expects tempered sales growth and occupancy for its hotels this year due to continued government inaction over the planned upgrading of a nearby airport, executives said late last week.
Boracay Regency is expecting slower growth this year because of a shift in the market profile toward ‘budget’ travelers and supposed government inaction on the plan to upgrade the nearby Caticlan airport.
Boracay Regency is expecting slower growth this year because of a shift in the market profile toward ‘budget’ travelers and supposed government inaction on the plan to upgrade the nearby Caticlan airport.
Competition from the rising number of hotels in the Boracay tourist getaway and a shift in the tourist demographic there to the budget crowd will likewise dampen growth, they said at the media launch of a P400-million expansion project.
Sales performance this year should improve over 2009 which was plagued by weak tourist arrivals due to the A(H1N1) virus and the global economic downturn, Boracay Regency resort manager Dindo F. Salazar told reporters.
“But I don’t think [we will achieve double-digit growth this year], maybe just maintain it,” Boracay Regency Chairman Henry Chusuey for his part said.
This comes as the Caticlan airport which serves Boracay island has yet to be upgraded to accommodate the growing number of visitors, Mr. Chusuey said.
“I don’t know why the government has not done anything about it,” he said.
A Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) official echoed calls to upgrade the Caticlan airport at the sidelines of the event. “It will definitely help boost tourism. It will determine whether foreign tourists will delay their return visits,” PCCI Chairman Emeritus Miguel B. Varela told BusinessWorld.
The PCCI has tagged the expansion of the airport as among priority infrastructure projects the government must focus on. The government last year signed a P2.5-billion contract with Caticlan International Airport Development Corp. to undertake the modernization of the airport under a build-rehabilitate-operate-transfer scheme.
Diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. recently took control of the firm in charge of the airport expansion.
Mr. Chusuey said continuing construction from competing resorts would likewise temper sales growth.
Occupancy this year will hover at 82%-85%. This is better than the 80% recorded last year but trails behind the peak 90%-95% recorded in early 2000, Mr. Salazar said.
“The market is now budget,” he said, noting that Korean tourists who make up the bulk of Boracay visitors are mostly from middle-class families.
But the slight decrease in projected occupancy is also due to the increase in the number of rooms. The recently completed construction of the 120-room Regency Lagoon brought the total to 606 rooms this year.
The Regency Lagoon, dubbed as “the first adult resort” open only to guests 18 years old and above, hopes to cater to the “Class A” market and high-spending Europeans, Mr. Salazar said.
This will be the last major development for the resort cluster, Mr. Chusuey said, which also includes the beach-front Boracay Regency Beach Resort and Convention Center and the Boracay Garden Resort.
A condominium project is being planned at the Manok-Manok area in the interior of Boracay.
A larger resort complex in Bohol costing P1.3 billion is likewise in the pipeline, he said without elaborating.
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