Alfred Reyes, Bai Hotel vice president for operations and general manager, says the Bai Hotel along Ouano Avenue in Mandaue Reclamation Area will open in mid-2017. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA).
A LOCAL hotel developer is looking at getting a bigger share of tourists in Cebu and is trying to make Mandaue City the next central business district in Metro Cebu with its latest 23-storey hotel project called Bai Hotel.
“This is a very ambitious project,” said Alfred Reyes, Bai Hotel vice president for operations and general manager, during a recent interview.
Reyes described Bai Hotel as a flagship project of the hotel developer, Bai Global Properties Inc., which will add 668 hotel rooms to Cebu’s booming hospitality industry once it opens in mid-2017.
Sitting on a 72,000-square-meter lot right across the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) along Ouano Avenue in Mandaue City, Bai Hotel aims to cater to low-end to high-end tourist markets as it houses all types of hotel accommodations under one roof, which are offered separately by existing hotels in the province.
“Our approach is different. We decided to capture all markets available right now in the Philippines,” Reyes said told Cebu Daily News.
With Cebu now dubbed as the second gateway next to Manila to other provinces in the Philippines and several countries abroad namely, USA, Taiwan, South Korea and Australia among others, Bai Hotel is heavily banking on the entry of tourists in Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA).
The hotel is expecting to benefit from the on-going developments of the airport particularly the opening of MCIA’s Terminal 2 by the second half of 2018 which is seen to potentially raise the airport’s annual tourist arrivals of 7 million to 13 million.
“(We are targeting) at (least) 40 percent occupancy. It all depends on how many tourists the airport will receive,” Reyes said.
He is also optimistic with the improved Philippines-China relationship as more Chinese tourists will be expected to come to Cebu to explore the island’s numerous tourist attractions and investment opportunities.
Reyes said that the hotel would abide by international hospitality standards and would offer products at par with the four big and established resorts in Mactan Island.
“(But) what makes us different is our location. We are very much in a location wherein the streets are wide and is connected to both bridges,” Reyes said.
The hotel is also under World Hotels, a US-based company that manages over 500 hotels and resorts around the globe. World Hotels also monitors that its members abide by international hotels standards and maintains the visibility of the hotel brands in all hotel booking platforms online.
Aside from that, Reyes said the hotel will also house eight signature restaurants including a Japanese and steakhouse restaurants, 12 conference halls, a 400-seat buffet restaurant, its own coffee and tea line, a convenience and souvenir shop, a fitness gym and a roof deck bar and lounge among others.
Reyes said for next year, Bai Global Properties Inc., which is a sister company of Philippine Spring Water Resources Inc., is planning to expand in Bacolod and Camotes Islands.