NUSTAR eyes Luzon expansion as Philippine casino market grows

CEBU, Philippines — The Gokongwei Group’s P30-billion investment in NUSTAR Resort and Casino here in the Queen City of the South is proving to be a winning move, with the five-star luxury development quickly catching up with its more established competitors across the country.

NUSTAR, which marks the group’s foray into the gaming and entertainment industry, currently ranks sixth among Philippine casinos in terms of gross gaming revenue (GGR), a feat it achieved in just two years since it officially opened in May 2022.

“We’re only two years old, and if you look at the comparison to the larger hotels in Clark, I know they’ve been operating for over 10 years; we’re hot on their heels. What they did in 10 years, we’ve done in two years,” Trevor Hammond, NUSTAR’s senior vice president for gaming and IR operations, told reporters last week.

According to Inside Asian Gaming, based on 2023 data from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., Razon’s Solaire Resort leads the local casino market in terms of GGR recorded last year with P61 billion, followed by Okada Manila (P44.5 billion), Newport World Resorts (P34.3 billion) and City of Dreams (P31.7 billion). Hann Casino Resort in Clark raked in P11.9 billion.

NUSTAR is said to have generated P5.5 billion, which IAG described as “a solid performance given that development work around the property has continued throughout the past year.”

Against this backdrop, NUSTAR is already looking to bring the brand outside Cebu, possibly in Clark in Luzon, although nothing is final yet.

“I think if the opportunity presents itself, it would be wise to try to spread the gaming footprint across the Philippines. With the success of NUSTAR, we can see that we’ve got the expertise and the foresight to be able to do something similar elsewhere. So, we’re constantly looking around for sure,” Hammond said.

NUSTAR, the first and only integrated resort in the Visayas and Mindanao, is touted as the luxury and lifestyle destination outside Metro Manila.

With a gaming space of 21,000 square meters, it has been attracting local and foreign guests, with Koreans making up some 40 percent of its foreign visitors.

Hammond is optimistic about the potential of the country’s casino market, given the growing gaming industry in the Asian region.

Following the opening of the resort’s flagship Fili Hotel, which has 379 rooms, NUSTAR is set to launch a new ultra-luxury hotel before the end of the year.

It also plans to open Grand Summit, another upscale hotel, in 2027, which will bring NUSTAR’s hotel count to 958 rooms, the biggest in Cebu, according to Roel Constantino, general manager for hotels.

Last week, NUSTAR launched its official lifestyle rewards program, NUSTAR Rewards, which allows guests tiered membership access to the resort’s exclusive perks, such as discounts on rooms and dining and priority access to events and offers.

NUSTAR is the flagship project of Universal Hotels and Resorts Inc., a privately owned corporation of the Gokongwei Group focused primarily on gaming and integrated resort developments across the Philippines.