Face-to-Face: Christian Pirodon
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
Christian Pirodon, area general manager of IHG Philippines, talks to Travel Daily about the hotel industry and the recently-launched hotel, Holiday Inn & Suites Makati
Q) How is the hotel market in Manila performing at present?
Recently, Moody’s Analytics released a report about the Philippines describing the country as Asia’s rising star and forecasting sustained economic growth for the country over the next three years. In the travel sector, the Philippine Department of Tourism is seeing major growth in the local hotel industry. Government data in 2012 showed room availability at 163,000 with about 15,000 more in the pipeline. Room demand is still expected to rise in the next three years with the projected growth in tourism arrivals.
Hopefully, the opening of Holiday Inn & Suites Makati will help close the projected supply gap in room availability in Metro Manila.
Q) What are you main source markets, and are you seeing much interest from Asia’s emerging markets such as China?
Travellers from the US, as well as corporate accounts from Singapore and Hong Kong, remain our main feeder markets. With the growth of Philippine domestic tourism, local residents occupy a high percentage of our occupancy, whether due to a short weekend staycation or weekday residential meetings.
Q) The Philippines, and Manila especially, is currently seeing a lot of hotel development. Is this good for the city, or will it have a negative impact?
As mentioned earlier, the Department of Tourism is seeing a supply gap of over 35,000 rooms by 2016, thus, the overall increase in hotel development all over the country will definitely help in closing this gap. And of course, new developments create more jobs so over all positive impact for the city.
Q) In the face of increased competition, what is the new Holiday Inn & Suites Makati offering to stay ahead of the curve?
Holiday Inn is one of the world’s most recognisable hotel brands. We have a global reputation for service, comfort and value and this is where the strength of the Holiday Inn brand lies. We are backed by over 60 years of hotel operating experience and up to this day, Holiday Inn continuously look for ways to improve and innovate in order to provide a welcoming and comfortable hotel experience for today’s travellers.
Q) What further developments can we expect from the Holiday Inn Makati in the coming months?
As we are fairly new (just opened on 1 April) we constantly look for ways to improve our facilities and services in order to provide our guests the level of world class service the Holiday Inn brand is known for.
Comments are closed.