Hotel staff to receive P43T bonus from APEC earnings

CEBU, Philippines - The over 200 employees of Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu will receive an extra bonus of P43,000 each after the hotel generated close to P10 million for service charge alone during the hosting of the APEC 2015 senior officials meeting.

The 20-day high-profile event also allowed the hotel to earn P15 million worth of PR value, which is expected to kick off more international MICE (meetings, incentives, conference, and exhibits)  events to Cebu, based on the positive impression of the APEC Summit delegates, said Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu general manager Nishan Silva.

Of the total of 87 meetings of the APEC-Third Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM3) spread from August 22, to September 11, 2015, about 50 meetings were held in the hotel, the reason why it had to hire 200 more workers and 55 additional security teams during the duration of the summit, said Silva.

"On a normal month, our staff usually takes home P25,000 in service charge shares, last month was the highest so far," said Ann Olalo, the hotel's director of sales and marketing.

Other APEC Summit related revenues, such as the food and beverage, room accommodation, among others still has to be calculated, Silva said.

What is profound however, he said is the direct benefit of the high profile event immediately felt by the hotel staff.

According to Silva, the long and tedious preparation for the APEC Summit 2015 hosting of Cebu has successfully paid off, and that the warm hospitality and fairly excellent hosting would surely bring Cebu's positioning as the premier MICE destination in Asia.

"MICE is absolutely the way to go with Cebu," said Silva adding that for his hotel alone, MICE events revenue contribution is climbing up to 25 percent of the over-all business mix," added Silva.

The 400-room hotel, which is part of the global Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, spent over P200 million for APEC-related preparations to elevate the standard of service, product, including amenities.

This improvement, Silva said did not only impress the dignified APEC officials, but also sold Cebu to the most influential people in the world.

Meanwhile, while the APEC Summit is the last international event to be hosted by Cebu this year, Hotel, Resorts, and Restaurant Association of Cebu (HRRAC) president Julie Najar said more will be held in the city in the next few months.

"There are still smaller national conventions scheduled before the year ends, and Cebu is the choice destination," Najar said.

Cebu's hosting of the APEC Summit, which gathered close to 3,000 delegates from all over Asia Pacific, not only poured in immediate revenue boost to the province, but it will push Cebu's positioning as preferred MICE destination, said tourism advocate Robert Lim Joseph.

This long term effect that Cebu could expect after hosting some of the APEC meetings, will not only put Cebu in the global MICE spotlight, it will also heighten awareness of some international investors to see the potential of Cebu.

"APEC delegates are businessmen too. Some of them are tourism investors," said Joseph stressing that everyone should collaborate in making the event "seamless" as this is one of the crucial events that will make or break Cebu's positioning as preferred MICE destination.    

During the 21-day international confab, the presence of the over 2,000 delegates was estimated to have contributed at least P268 million during the entire duration of the meeting, based on an estimated expenditure of US$100 a day (per delegate.)