Posted on 10:14 PM, May 20, 2010 [ BusinessWorld Online ]
EXPECTING A boom in the tourism business, the hotel arm of Henry Sy-led SM Investments Corp. will open an upscale hotel in Cebu by the second half of the year.
“Wholly owned subsidiary SM Hotels and Conventions Corp. is scheduled to open its premier project in the Visayas, the Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu, by the second half of this year,” the company told the local bourse in a disclosure yesterday.
“It will be positioned as the city’s leading international upper upscale hotel,” said SM Investments, the holding firm of the mall, retail and banking businesses of the Sy family.
The 400-room Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu will be Carlson Hotels’ first Radisson Blu hotel in the Asia Pacific. Carlson Hotels is a global hotel company with more than 1,060 locations in 77 countries.
The hotel will have 10 function rooms; two ballrooms, one of which will be a 1,000-square-meter pillar-less main ballroom; a spa and fitness center; a lobby lounge; an all-day dining restaurant; and a swimming pool.
The new hotel is aiming to attract both business and leisure travelers in Cebu City.
“The upcoming opening of Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu further enhances SM’s range of tourism products and services,” Elizabeth T. Sy, president of SM Hotels and Conventions Corp., said in the statement.
“It is also our timely response to the country’s growing demand for first-rate accommodations for tourists and business travellers,” she added.
Radisson Blu Hotel will be located at Cebu City’s North Reclamation Area, near the city’s international port, and SM City Cebu.
Last year, Cebu attracted more than 1.6 million foreign and domestic travelers.
Shares in SM Investments, whose profits grew by 14% in the first quarter to P4.8 billion, shed P2.50 on Thursday to close at P392.50 apiece.
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