Ayala Land to launch new hotel brands

Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI) will launch new hotel brands this year, a company official told reporters Wednesday. In a press briefing after the company's annual stockholders' meeting, ALI president Antonino Aquino said the property developer will launch its new affordable hotel by the fourth quarter. It will have 150 to 200 hotel rooms at around $60 or P2,500 a night. The company is already looking at Bacolod, Iloilo or South Park Alabang as possible sites. ALI will also launch the upscale Seda Suites in Bonifacio Global City. “We really intend to be aggressive to be able to take advantage of the current positive economic environment,” Aquino said. He said that the company will have nearly 2,000 hotel rooms by 2014 and 4,000 rooms by 2015. With its target of 10 million tourist arrivals in the Philippines by 2016, the Department of Tourism is facing a shortage of hotel rooms that now stands at 32,000. “The projection is, for every one million additional tourists in the country, we need around 8,000 to 9,000 extra rooms,” ALI vice president Junie Jalandoni said last February. This year, ALI will add 534 rooms to the total with the opening of Holiday Inn & Suites and the Seda boutique hotel in Davao. ALI presently has 1,426 hotel rooms, of which 947 are of branded hotels such as Hotel Intercontinental in Makati and the Cebu Marriott. The company is also planning the opening of Seda hotels in Quezon City, Nuvali in Alabang and Sta. Ana in Makati as well as shopping malls  in Fairview in Quezon City, Bacolod, Molino in Cavite and University of the Philippines Intergrated School and expansion of Cebu Center Ayala Land, Landmark in Trinoma and Bonifacio High Street in Bonifacio Global City that will add 125,000 square meters of retail space to its portfolio. ALI will also launch 69 residential projects with a total estimated value of P129 billion this year. — BM, GMA News