Hotel 101 Group targets more Chinese tourists

MANILA, Philippines — Hotel 101 Group aims to capture a huge chunk of the Chinese market to capitalize on the influx of Chinese tourists into the country.

The company last month joined the Philippine Delegation to the China Outbound Travel & Tourism Market (COTTM) in Beijing, China to help promote its hotels.

 “While the Philippines remains to be one of the top 10 destinations of the Chinese, it is also reported that China has a great potential given that only less than 10 percent of its population has a passport, and that it is predicted to double in size by 2020,” said Hotel 101 Group general manager Lei Apostol.

Now on its 14th year, COTTM is regarded as the industry’s most important platform and remains the only business-to- business event that focuses purely on the burgeoning outbound China market.

 Officials from Hotel 101 joined the Philippine Delegation headed by Philippine ambassador to the People’s Republic of China Jose Santiago Sta. Romana, Department of Tourism Beijing Attache Tomasito Umali and Tourism Promotions Board’s Jaime Sy.

Representatives from 16 hospitality, airline, and travel agency partners also joined the group.

“The Philippines is very pleased to participate in the COTTM 2018 to showcase Tourism in the Philippines,” Sta. Romana said, noting that in 2017 China was the second largest source of international tourists to the Philippines, next to South Korea.

“With improved bilateral relations between the Philippines and China, we have seen increased Chinese tourists by 44 percent in 2017 from the previous year,” Sta. Romana said.

 Hotel 101’s Apostol, meanwhile, said the company is on track in priming the hospitality sector with plans to open more Hotel 101 and Jinjiang Inn in the Philippines.

 Last month, the group launched Hotel 101 – Fort, and unveiled plans for Hotel 101 – Davao, which is set to add 606 and 519 more rooms to the group’s total inventory by 2020.

The Hotel 101 Group is the hospitality arm of DoubleDragon Properties Corp.