Google Search
More Articles
syndicate
We have 44 guests online
Home 
News Top Stories Big hotel chains flocking to RP
News Top Stories Big hotel chains flocking to RP
| Big hotel chains flocking to RP |
| Sunday, 13 July 2008 22:25 | ||||||
|
Ma. Victoria V. Jasmin, director of the Department of Tourism’s investments promotions group, said in an interview that Singapore’s Frasers Hospitality, India’s Taj group and Malaysia’s Rangkaian were also on the lookout for possible projects in the Philippines. Jasmin said the Accor and Banyan Tree projects were on top of the P5.9 billion worth of investments that the DOT had endorsed for incentives between January and May this year. The France-based Accor has entered into a joint venture with the Araneta Group to build a four-star hotel at the Araneta Center in Cubao, Quezon City. To be called Novotel Manila Araneta Center, the hotel will be adjacent to the Araneta Coliseum and is expected to open in 2010. The new Novotel will have 415 rooms, a 600-square-meter ballroom and large meeting facilities that would cater to business clients as well as the meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions market. Singpore-based Banyan Tree has entered into a joint venture with mining and real estate magnate Salvador B. Zamora II to develop and operate two luxury resorts on Dinaran Island in northern Palawan at a total cost of $70 million. Banyan Tree and Zamora plan to make the uninhabited, 55-hectare island ready by 2010. “The Taj group was also interested in a nearby property in the main island of Palawan, but another company had already got it,” Jasmin said. A part of the Tata group of companies, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces has 57 hotels in 40 locations across India and 18 international hotels in the Maldives, Mauritius, Malaysia, Australia, United Kingdom, United States, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Africa and the Middle East. Top executives from Accor, Taj and other hotel and resort chains were here last week to take part in the 3rd Asean Tourism Investment Forum held in Pasay City. “We facilitated the Taj group scouting sortie, and Taj is interested in building a high-rise hotel in Makati as well as a resort outside Metro Manila,” the official added. The Taj group was represented by Rajiv Gujral, chief of the firms’ mergers, acquisitions and development group. “Gujral said they were looking at investing in a hotel with a floor area of between 10,000 and 12,000 square meters,” Jasmin said. She added that Frasers was looking into expanding its Philippine operations with serviced apartments while Rangkaian was eyeing its first location outside Malaysia. Frasers is known for the brands FraserSuites, FraserResidence and FraserPlace—one of which is in Makati. Rangkaian Hotel Seri Malaysia is the biggest mid-range hotel chain in Malaysia, with properties in at least 18 locations concentrated in the Malayan peninsula. In a previous interview, Tourism Secretary Ace Durano said the development of facilities and infrastructure for tourism was catching up with growing demand. Durano said all these projects would help prepare the country for the arrival of five million visitors by 2010.
Set as favorite
Bookmark
Email This
Hits: 192 Trackback(0)
Comments (0)
 Write comment
|
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
| Related Articles | |
