World-class resort hotel rising in Aurora

BALER, Aurora, Philippines – A world-class resort hotel is rising in this capital town in the next 12 months to cater to the ever-growing tourism industry in the province.

To be known as Costa Pacifica, the three-story, 78-room hotel is now under construction at a three-hectare site in Barangay Sabang, a premier surfing destination among local and foreign enthusiasts.

The seaside resort hotel – located inside the compound of the Bay’s Inn Hotel and Restaurant – is being built by the internationally acclaimed Raintree Co., the management arm of the Discovery Suites in Ortigas and Boracay.

Raintree is also the builder of several high-end hotels, restaurants, food courts and food parks in various parts of the country.

Annabella Wisniewski, Raintree president and representatives of her company, met with Sen. Edgardo Angara here for the hotel project. With Wisniewski was Raeana Cranbourne, a half-Filipina, half-Australian who is the firm’s project director.

Wisniewski said the hotel, designed by prominent architect Ed Calma, will have a restaurant and cafeteria where meetings, conferences and social events can be held. It will be completed in December 2012, with a soft opening a month earlier.

“This type of hotel is appropriate for Filipino hospitality. It’s a terrific industry because Filipinos are naturally hospitable,” said Wisniewski.

Wisniewski, has been in the hotel and restaurant business for the past 40 years. She holds the distinction as the first Filipina graduate in hotel and restaurant management at Cornell University and has worked in major hotel firms abroad such as Hilton Hotel and Marriot Hotel in Honolulu. She also managed a hotel group in Singapore.

Wisniewski said their firm decided to build a world-class hotel in this capital town to cash in on the booming tourism industry and to spur countryside development.