Megaworld puts up 3rd hotel in Iloilo township

MANILA, Philippines — Megaworld, the Andrew Tan-led property giant, is expanding its hotel footprint in its 72-hectare Iloilo Business Park township in Mandurriao, Iloilo City.

It is building its fourth Belmont Hotel to cater to the growing tourism market in the province.

The 12-story Belmont Hotel Iloilo, scheduled to open in 2023, will have 405 suites.  It is the third hotel within the Iloilo township.

It will be located along the stretch of the 1.1-kilometer long Festive Walk Parade, just walking distance to the iconic Iloilo Convention Center and the Festive Walk Mall.

Jennifer Palmares-Fong, vice president for sales and marketing of Megaworld, said the company sees the huge potential of the province as a tourism destination.

“With the Iloilo Convention Center as a main facility for meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE), there is no doubt that Iloilo City needs another world-class hotel. And we are bringing another Megaworld homegrown hotel brand, which has gained popularity among business travelers since Belmont Hotel Manila opened in 2015,” she said.

The Belmont Hotel in Iloilo is Megaworld’s fourth Belmont Hotel after the first Belmont Hotel that opened in Newport City. The second Belmont Hotel is set to open in Boracay Newcoast next year, while the third one will be at The Mactan Newtown, the company’s 30-hectare township in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu.

In Iloilo Business Park, Megaworld opened its third Richmonde Hotel in 2014, while its sister company Travelers International Hotels Group Inc., owner and operator of Resorts World Manila, opened the Courtyard by Marriott early this year.

According to the Iloilo City Tourism Office, tourist arrivals in the city have remarkably increased during the past five years.

Lat year, around 1.08 million local and foreign tourists visited Iloilo City. Most foreign visitors came from South Korea, US, Canada, Mexico and Australia.

Tourism receipts, on the other hand, reached P19.8 billion in 2017 as registration for tourism-related establishments such as hotels rose by 55 percent to 1,605 last year.