THERE will be no new tourism-related investments for Cebu Landmasters Inc. (CLI) this year as the listed firm takes careful assessment under the new normal landscape.
“We are not pursuing too much of this kind of development this year because most of these new launches are being programmed for 2021. And we will continue to assess the situation whether there is a need to gradually construct or accelerate (the development) as the situation is still very flexible,” Soberano said.
So far, CLI operates only one hotel—the 180-room Citadines Cebu City in Baseline Center. The other seven hotel projects are still in the construction and planning stages.
Some of these hotel projects are the 146-room Radisson Red, which is part of the Astra Centre in Mandaue City that is slated for completion in the first quarter of 2023; the 161-room serviced residence Lyf Cebu City at the Base Line Prestige in Cebu City to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2022; the recently acquired 125-room Abaca Resort Mactan to be completed by the second quarter of 2024; and the 250-room Lowaii Resort Mactan to be completed in 2025.
Tourism and travel are among the hardest hit sectors in today’s challenging times as the spread of Covid-19 resulted in border closures across the globe, halting flight movements, among others.
CLI chief operating officer Franco Soberano noted that timing is on their side as four hotel projects are slated for completion between 2023 and 2024.
“We hope that by the time our hotel projects are completed, we would see improvements in the tourism industry. We believe that tourism will not only return to normal, but it will be even better,” he said.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, CLI was bullish about the country’s tourism business, laying out plans for expansion, particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao.
CLI logged P20.7 million in revenues for hotel operations in the first quarter of 2020 with the operation of Citadines Cebu City. (KOC)