HRRAC sees sustained growth in occupancy

CEBU, Philippines — The Hotel, Resort and Restaurant Association of Cebu (HRRAC) remains bullish on occupancy growth this year and next.

HRRAC president Carlo Suarez said the industry sees sustained growth in hotel occupancy and tourist arrivals in Cebu throughout this year.

"Tourism would really be the 'in' thing not just this year but in coming years as well," the official said in an interview at the group's general membership meeting Thursday night in Marco Polo Cebu.

Suarez noted he expects more direct flights to and from Cebu as Mactan Airport's Terminal 2 starts commercial operations on July 1.

This, he said, will result to more tourists visiting Cebu and its neighboring islands in the region.

"We expect more direct flights," he said.

On Wednesday, Royal Air launched its inaugural direct flight between Macau and Cebu, being the latest to mount a direct international flight at the country's second busiest airport.

Likewise, the industry is also looking forward to additional rooms that should increase the capacity of Cebu's hotel industry.

"We expect both local and international chains to (join the industry) and that will add more rooms," he said.

He added the capacity of Cebu's hotels remains sufficient to meet the current demand.

Suarez had projected at least 12 percent industry growth rate this year based on tourist arrivals.

In a press event on Wednesday, Shalimar Tamano, regional director of the Department of Tourism in Central Visayas, said that based on initial assessment, tourist arrivals in the region and Cebu in the first quarter of 2018 were "good".

The agency is yet to release official figures on the first quarter tourist count.

Tourist arrivals in Central Visayas hit approximately 6.9 million last year, with Cebu as the region's top travel hub.

The 2017 tourist count surpassed the region's 6.3-million target for the said year and posted a 17.13 percent growth from the 2016 arrivals.

The active movement of the Filipinos travelling to different destinations in the Philippines has benefited Cebu and the rest of Central Visayas region, as domestic travelers dominate the arrival volume of 58.33 percent with 4 million visiting the four provinces in the region, namely Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental and Siquijor.

The region's top tourism market was still Korea, with the highest number of tourist population, noted to be 895,776 in total; followed by China with a volume of 429,306 and has a highest growth rate among the top ten markets; Japan with 408,566; and USA with 219,796.

Moreover, the DOT-7 also recorded a total of 71,739 visitors coming from Taiwan; Australia came in sixth with 71,724; Germany with 58,432, followed by France with 50,257, and the United Kingdom with 49,484, and finally, Canada comes in tenth with 43,084 registered tourists.