A homegrown hotel and resort company has invested around P50 million to upgrade its Bluewater Maribago and Sumilon properties and P300 million within the next two years for their first hospital soon to rise in Mactan.
Rhyz O. Buac, Bluewater Resorts vice president for finance, said in a statement that they remain confident in the tourism industry in the region and further cement their brand through constant upgrades.
The most recent addition to their Bluewater Resorts is Bluewater Panglao which started operations only three years ago in Panglao Island, Bohol.
The 5.5 hectare-resort has 54 rooms which includes deluxe rooms, a family villa, honeymoon villas and a family loft.
Edison V. Navas, Bluewater Panglao resident manager, said the resort has been performing well with occupancy rate now hitting 40 percent, showing that the market is recovering from last year’s earthquake that temporarily paralyzed tourism activities in Bohol.
“We recently acquired an additional 300,000 square meters of land to add to the 5.5 hectares area,” Navas said.
He said that the property was originally designed as a 150-room property.
“For now, 54 rooms are enough. We have plans to expand and add more but not soon. What we plan is to get the resort operating back to pre-earthquake status first,” he said.
Buac said the upgrades are happening for the two other properties — Bluewater Sumilon in Oslob and Bluewater Maribago in Mactan.
“Bluewater Maribago, now at 25 years, is getting a fresh look or makeover. We are currently updating and renovating our facilities, including the rooms and main swimming pool.
For this year, Buac said they added seven premier deluxe rooms in their inventory which is now at 165 rooms.
ONGOING PROJECTS
Ongoing projects include renovation of main swimming pool, which is targeted for completion by Oct. 25, renovation of four Beach Wing Rooms to be completed this December and renovation of the remaining 20 deluxe rooms at the Garden Wing which will start by first quarter 2015.
For Bluewater Sumilon, Buac said as of the quarter of 2013, they now have 27 rooms of that number 13 are new deluxe rooms.
According to Buac, their group’s performance has been very overwhelming.
“So far this year, we averaged at 85 percent occupancy for Bluewater Maribago, 60 percent occupancy for Bluewater Sumilon and 50 percent occupancy for Bluewater Panglao,” Buac said.
Their top foreign tourist groups are Japanese, Koreans and Europeans while the domestic market remains strong.
DIVERSIFY
With their thrust toward diversifying their business, Buac also revealed that they are embarking on a P300 million project within the next two years.
“Right now, the group is diversifying its investments. Our priority for the next two years is to put up a 100-bed hospital in Mactan that will be called Mactan Island General Hospital.”
Construction will start next year with investment estimated to not go lower than P300 million, said Buac.