Banking on hotels
September 23, 2006 | 12:00am
The annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) has just concluded in Singapore. Serious talk centered on relevant change for the Breton Wood twins to make them more relevant in an increasingly irrational, economically Balkanized world. Over 10,000 participants, advisors, support staff, spouses and media representatives came to that sunny island last week. Twice that number probably came including those who had peripheral business related to the IMF-WB aside from other minor events in the city.
The whole tourism infrastructure of Singapore went into high gear with many hotels spending for facelifts and outright major renovations to cater for this key event, one of many that Singapore hosts every year. Yes, the island nation is one of the world’s most popular convention destinations, earning billions of dollars yearly in revenue for the country.
I remember when Manila made a bid to become the MICE (meeting, incentives, convention and exhibition) center of Asia, if not the world. The year was 1976 and the key event was also the IMF-WB annual meeting. Over 30 years ago, the expected number of visitors was less than half the number that Singapore hosted last week. Close to 2,000 delegates came to Manila with a few thousand more in tow. Manila up till the ‘70s had only a handful of world-class hotels, bannered by the Manila Hilton, the Hotel Intercon, the Hyatt and the grand dame herself – the Manila Hotel. A dozen more hotels to up the city’s capacity to over 10,000 rooms were needed.
Considering that the city and the country were caught up in the hubris of the "New Society," this need was quickly filled. Over a dozen new hotels sprouted in the city (and a handful more pensions and one-star accommodations also sprung up in the peripheries). The 1976 Fookien Times listed these hotels as follows: The Admiral Hotel (100 rooms); the Century Park Sheraton (510 rooms, the Holiday Inn Manila (370 rooms); Hotel Mirador (340 rooms); Manila Garden Hotel (511 rooms); the Manila Hotel (renovated and expanded to 570 rooms); the Manila Mandarin (504 rooms); the Philippine Village Hotel, Manila Midtown Ramada (600 rooms); the Manila Peninsula (544 rooms); the Philippine Plaza (676 rooms); the Regent of Manila (500 rooms) and the Silahis Hotel (600 rooms).
Manila was a busy place construction-wise in the two years leading up to the IMF-WB meet. Top Filipino architects like Carlos Arguelles and Gabriel Formoso were strained to the limit with these projects. Busiest, however, was Leandro V. Locsin. He designed the Manila Hotel renovation, the new Philippine Plaza, and the new Manila Mandarin. Busy, too, were interior designers and landscape architects like Ildefonso P. Santos and Dolly Quimbo Perez. It was a wonderful time to be a Filipino architect or designer: you had good projects, clients who believed in your capacity, and fees to match your effort.
These new hotels were mostly designed in the modernist bent. Reinforced concrete was the material of choice but tropical considerations were kept in mind with deep overhangs, good solar east-west orientation (except perhaps with the Manila Hotel block, which was oriented flat side to the setting sun to maximize the view). Interiors were filled with contemporary furniture made from Philippine hardwood, fabric and other organic material. The landscape designs were functional, modern but lush and colorful to reflect the Philippine setting and culture.
Many of these hotels are now celebrating their 30th anniversary and have matured well. The Manila Peninsula still sits imperiously at the corner of Makati and Ayala Avenues. The original funky-modernist Gabriel Formoso design that had given much character to its façade and grand lobby was tweaked in the ‘90s with a generic neo-colonial renovation topped by a fantasy-baroque waterfalls (I always expect a bevy of swimsuit-clad maidens to jump off from the top). In contrast, the elegant minimalist Manila Mandarin (now the Mandarin Oriental Manila) has also stood the test of time nearby, although I never understood its inconsequential and undersized lobby (possibly a victim of last-minute reorientation of its entrance from Makati Avenue to the rear?). The Manila Garden (now Dusit Hotel Nikko) also stands as a familiar anchor to the commercial center site along the same row as the Intercon, which opened earlier in 1969.
In Manila, or actually Pasay City, the Philippine Plaza (now a Sofitel hotel) has weathered countless political and tropical typhoons. Its landmark IP Santos-designed resort pool is still a great place to lounge and enjoy the dramatic views of Manila Bay. Whatever happened to the Luz sculptures in its still-dramatic Locsin lobby? The Holiday Inn Manila is now the The Traders Hotel while the Regent has turned into the Heritage Hotel Manila, which is efficiently run by a Singaporean hotel chain.
The Sheraton is now the Century Park and still doing good business but the Midtown Ramada Hotel is no more, having been demolished recently to make way for residential and mixed-use towers. The Silahis Hotel on Roxas Boulevard today caters to package tourists. The old disco and DOM crowds sorely miss it for its Stargazer and Playboy clubs, which anchored the place till the 1980s.
By the Luneta, the classic Manila Hotel is now a classic case of uncontrolled kitsch. One critic has voiced her very un-PC concern that the hotel is turning into a cheap noodle house. I don’t dislike noodles myself…so long as they are not served with throwaway chopsticks and on plastic plates. It’s a good thing that the current owners decided to not put the hotel’s name on a giant billboard, opting instead to put oversized letters to spell its name on its roof. It’s also a relief that the original William Parsons design of the front block (that’s close to a hundred years old) is unchanged…for now.
Other hotels of the IMF-WB generation have also not fared well. The Philippine Village Hotel is waiting to be leveled. When the new NAIA opens new year (please, parang awa niyo na!!), a new Marriott Hotel will follow at its heels nearby to replace the PVH’s function as an airport and business hotel.
The Manila Manor has stood motionless on San Marcelino in Manila all these years. It seems at times to be open but I can’t really tell. Peripheral hotels that were built in Manila and its suburbs have also not fared well. The Makati Hotel is now the headquarters of the MMDA. The El Grande Resort Hotel in Sucat, Parañaque also disappeared with urban sprawl.
Today, Metropolitan Manila is gateway to over two million foreign visitors (if you believe the DOT’s statistics). The number of good hotel rooms in the city has increased only 10 percent in 30 years to just over 12,000 rooms. This is a third of Singapore’s 36,000 rooms, a fourth of Bangkok’s and a sixth of Hong Kong’s capacities.
We need more rooms, of course, or nobody will bother visiting us or bring in business. Tourist infrastructure here, as with normal basic infrastructure, is woefully inadequate and user-unfriendly. Traffic, the lack of clear directional signage, the lack of lighting at night, crime, billboards (instead of trees and views) all add up to a fairly uninviting tourist destination.
If we did manage to open the new airport and clean up the megalopolis, we have to ensure that new hotels will be well-built and built within an adequate context of good access from the airport, proximity to urban tourist destinations (considering we can conserve architectural and cultural heritage citywide), as well as to business centers.
New hotels also need to be clustered in districts designed for pedestrian friendliness (as most hotels in world-class cities are). Clustering within mixed-use districts also assures visitors that they are not isolated from our colorful daily lives, that urban events we enjoy are enjoyed by our guests, too, that we all benefit from contact with guests beyond the default cultural shows, disguised prostitution or themed historically-incorrect "light and sound" shows. Tourists want to go where the locals go.
Finally, too, we have to give Filipino designers a chance to design hotels in the Philippines. Too many of the second-wave of hotel building that were built in the 1990s were the products of foreign consultants. Many of these structures are bland copies of existing hotels in western and even other Asian capitals. There is a new generation of Filipino architects, interior designers and landscape architects just waiting to be able to express their brand of colorful creativity. Don’t our visitors wish to sample our culture and hospitality where they stay for the night? Why visit the Philippines just to get a Thai massage in a Balinese hut surrounded by Californian landscapes? What will visitors imagine that we value in our culture when we prefer to welcome them with Italian marble, Burmese teak, French wine and American accents?
It’s all a matter then of what we all put value in. This value is not a purely monetary one, though we would benefit much from a more rational approach to tourism. Trade, like tourism, is a matter of equitable exchange. It is a matter of understanding other cultures and points of view so that both parties walk away with more than they bargained for. And that wealth of tolerance and understanding is what you can definitely take to the bank.
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