Posted on June 11, 2012 11:43:20 PM [
BusinessWorld Online ]
RESORT DEVELOPER Boulevard Holdings,
Inc. saw sales last month drop by more than a fifth as the euro zone crisis
reportedly hurt tourist arrivals, a disclosure to the local bourse yesterday
showed.
The latest performance dragged down
full-year results, leaving Boulevard Holdings to close its fiscal year ending
in May with a 12% drop in sales.
“Our Fridays Boracay subsidiary has
been affected by less tourist arrivals from Europe due to the crisis. In
particular, our bellwether German clients have decreased,” Boulevard Holdings
said, referring to its hotel unit, Friday’s Holdings, Inc., which operates in
Boracay Island, Aklan.
For May 1 to 31, the company’s
consolidated sales of products and services declined by 23% to P8.66 million a
year ago.
The company, which also operates a
branch in Puerto Galera, thus saw sales fall by 12% to P129.40 million for the
full fiscal year ending in May.
The company’s latest financial
statement was not immediately available.
Economies that form the
single-currency European Union (EU) have been in the spotlight lately, amid
ongoing debt woes in Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain.
Nevertheless, Boulevard Holdings
expects an improvement in next year’s sales, banking on the traditional
resilience of the local tourism sector.
“We view this as temporary, and we
hope to recover next fiscal year. As all research has empirically shown,
tourism always bounces back,” the company said.
Boulevard Holdings told BusinessWorld
last February that it planned to further expand its Fridays hotel brand to
locations such as Palawan. It also plans to launch a hotel in Cebu in line with
targets of establishing of one Fridays boutique hotel per year until 2016.
Boulevard Holdings, for instance, has
been scouting for foreign and local partners to develop its 3,000-hectare
Puerto Azul resort in Cavite province.
The company failed to close a separate
long-term venture for an existing golf course and hotel spa site within Puerto
Azul last November, when Korean-based Resom Resort Co. Ltd. withdrew from a
possible partnership, preferring to invest in a Subic hotel resort instead.
Boulevard Holdings shares rallied by
4.17% to 15 centavos yesterday from 14 centavos at its previous close. -- Franz
Jonathan G. de la Fuente
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