NEWSFLASH

Cebu City, Aug. 14, 2000 - The country stands to benefit more as long as hotels based in Cebu and elsewhere in the country are charging rates in dollars.

This was the reaction of a hotel owner to reports that travel and hotel agents are clamoring for local hotels to charge rates in pesos, the local currency.

Goldland Philippines Corp. (GPC) president Manuel Osmeña told reporters the country stands to earn foreign exchange when the hotel industry charges rates in US dollar.

Osmeña is majority-owner of the P1.5 billion Hilton Cebu Resort & Towers now nearing completion in barangay Punta Engaño, Lapu-Lapu City.

GPC's Mactan project is a Mediterranean-inspired resort complex and is the first Hilton in the country after an absence of more than a decade from Manila.

The hotel, to be managed by Hilton International, will employ some 450 employees majority of whom will be picked locally, said Osmeña.

Half of the workforce in the on-going construction are Cebu natives and residents, said project general contractor Manuel Mendoza.

Osmeña said he is pursuing the project because he is confident the Mindanao crisis had no adverse effects on the Cebu tourism industry.

"My market is worldwide and if Shangri-La can maintain a 40 to 45 percent occupancy even in crisis, I don't see any reason why Hilton can't," he said.

The project has two residential towers and one hotel tower.

The first residential tower is reportedly almost sold out, with only four units left. The other residential tower will start rising starting next year as soon as the hotel and the first tower are finished.

Hilton Towers is also helping barangay Punta Engaño rehabilitate its wharf, extending it by 150 meters to accommodate motorized outriggers ferrying passengers to nearby Olango island even during low tide.

Osmeña said he already signed a contract with barangay captain Angel Rodriguez for the construction of public parking and public comfort rooms in the area.

The one-hectare rocky beachfront of the hotel resort will be transformed into a marina for visiting yachts and a sandy beach for hotel guests.

Osmeña said he will not import sand from any nearby island.

"I will use dolomite sand which is abundant in Cebu," he said.

GPC has scheduled the formal launching of the project on Sept. 21, 2000 at the Cebu City Waterfront Hotel in Lahug. Osmeña said his project is entirely debt-free and is only the first of a series of hotel projects Hilton International has lined up for Cebu.