Summit Hotel Tacloban opening to draw big events

TACLOBAN CITY, June 23 -- The opening of the Robinsons-owned Summit Hotel in this city will attract big gatherings to the regional capital, key local tourism officials said on Wednesday.

Department of Tourism - Eastern Visayas officer-in-charge, Trina Dacuycuy, said the presence of the 138-room hotel, with function rooms that could accommodate up to 650 people, would boost the region’s bid to become a destination for meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE).

“In the past, we always failed in our bid to host bigger events because of the absence of hotels with large function halls in the city. With the opening of Summit Hotel, we are more confident of hosting MICE, which we see as one of the most effective tourism campaigns,” said Dacuycuy during the hotel’s grand opening on Thursday.

MICE visitor arrivals in the Philippines were unavailable but estimates showed an 8-percent share in total tourist arrivals.

City tourism officer Malou Tabao said the operation of a big hotel here would not only boost tourism activities in Tacloban City, but in the six provinces of the region as well.

“Since we are the gateway of Eastern Visayas, about 80 percent of the region’s tourists come to the city for a tour or an overnight stay. This hotel will give them more reasons to stay in Tacloban,” Tabao told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).

“Event organizers and participants want to stay in the same hotel with large function rooms for major gatherings and break-in sessions. We did not have a place like this before,” she added.

Before the opening of the Summit Hotel, the city had 54 hotels and lodging houses with 1,859 rooms.

Summit Hotel Tacloban is the fifth property of the Gokongwei-led Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) under the Summit brand. The 138-room hotel, the largest in the city, is considered to be the first shopping hotel built next to Robinsons Place Tacloban on the RLC-owned five-hectare complex in Marasbaras district.

“We are looking forward to doing our share to capture the MICE market for Tacloban and Leyte. Conventions bring in much-needed tourist traffic to a destination and we hope we can build this market with the brand new facilities,” said Elizabeth Gregorio, Summit Hotels and Go Hotels general manager.

Summit Hotel is the second hotel of RLC in the city after Go Hotels, which opened in April 2012 in the same complex - where RLC opened its first mall in Eastern Visayas in 2009.

RLC operates five Summit hotels -- Summit Ridge Tagaytay, Summit Hotel Magnolia in Quezon City, Summit Galleria Cebu, Summit Circle Cebu, and Summit Hotel Tacloban. (SQM/PNA)