By Othel V.
Campos | Posted on Feb. 13, 2013 at 12:01am
[
manilastandardtoday.com ]
Ayala Land
Inc. and the InterContinental Hotels Group will open Holiday Inn and Suites
Makati in April, adding 308 more rooms that will partly close the supply gap in
Metro Manila.
“Surely,
we have plans for more rollout.
Hopefully, this will help address the projected growth in tourism arrivals in
2013 with Manila still needing the most number of rooms between now and 2016,”
InterContinental Manila manager Christian Pirodon said Tuesday.
The Holiday
Inn brand is the third of the three under the InterContinental Hotel Group
chain, the first two being the Crowne Hotel and the InterContinental Hotel.
“With the
Holiday Inn brand in the Philippines, it’s always a case of rebranding. This
new addition to the Holiday Inn brand is totally new, totally fresh. We built
it from scratch and we want to emphasize that this brand will cater to family
and a relatively young market,” Pirodon said.
The Holiday
Inn management is looking at least a 100-room occupancy level before the formal
opening in April.
Government
data showed room availability in 2012 stood at 162,704, with about 15,021 in
the pipeline. Demand is expected to surge and by 2016, the supply gap for
critical destinations alone will reach 37,352 rooms.
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