Local hotel brands seen to rise

MANILA, Philippines  — The hotel sector expects the rise of more local hotel brands over international brands, as the domestic tourism market is expected to recover first, an industry group said.

“Local brands will start to mushroom,” Philippines Hotel Owners Association (PHOA) president Arthur Lopez said in a webinar by Santos Knight Frank.

He added that these local brands are expected to be in the three-star to budget hotels categories, which will target the domestic tourism market.

“The international brands will attract the higher-end customers. This is about 10 percent (of occupancy),” Lopez added.

The Department of Tourism (DOT), as well as tourism stakeholders, said earlier that the domestic tourism sector would recover first before the international markets as travel restrictions remain in place around the world.

Domestic tourists comprise a larger chunk of the country’s tourist numbers, with a total of 111 million recorded domestic tourists in 2018.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show that domestic tourism expenditure increased to P3.14 trillion in 2019, a 10.4 percent increase from P2.85 trillion the year earlier.

Robinsons Hotels and resort senior vice president and business unit general manager Arthur Gindap echoed Lopez’s sentiments as he emphasized the quality of local hotel brands.

“Locally, we can be as good as international brands. I think we may see the birth of good local hotel brands,” Gindap said.

Meanwhile, Lopez urged hotels to start doing their renovation efforts now in line with placing safety and health measures so that they will be ready to accommodate tourists when tourism activity resumes.

He cited that the government, through the Board of Investments (BOI), is granting tax incentives to tourism enterprises for the renovation or modernization of their facilities in line with upgrading health and safety protocols.

Among the renovation tax incentives to be granted are a three-year income tax holiday and duty-free importation of capital equipment.

Examples of renovations or upgrade that can qualify for such tax incentives include renovation of guestrooms, food and beverage outlets, function/meeting rooms, recreation areas and/or other common areas; investment in new or upgrade of laundry, kitchen, housekeeping, employee facilities and other back of house facilities; building of full, partial or movable partitions; installation of built-in thermal scanners, hygiene gates, and/or booths; upgrade or improvement of ventilation, air conditioning, air filtration systems, water systems, water treatment facilities (STP); a mobile check-in system; non-touch or no contact door lock systems and non-touch control panels in elevators and other areas.