The Board of Investments granted tax incentives to a P500-million hotel in Tacloban City being built by Summit Hotel and Resorts Group, a unit of developer Robinsons Land Corp.
Summit Hotel Tacloban, which qualified as a tourism project under the 2017 Investment Priorities Plan, is expected to boost tourism in Tacloban, which suffered heavy damage during the onslaught of typhoon Yolanda in 2013.
Endorsed by the Tourism Department as a five-star hotel facility, Summit Hotel Tacloban is located within the Robinsons Place Complex. The 138-room hotel has a floor area of around 9,000 square meters and will have a food and beverage outlet, outdoor swimming pool, grand ballroom and meeting rooms and other support facilities.
Commercial operation will begin in April 2018 with at least 25 employees.
It is the fifth Summit Hotel in the country and Robinsons Land’s 12th BOI-registered hotel project.
Robinsons Land is a part of the JG Summit Holdings Inc., the investment company of tycoon John Gokongwei which has diverse interests in real estate and hotels, food and beverages, air transportation, banking, petrochemicals and core investments in telecommunications and power distribution.
Trade Undersecretary and BOI managing head Ceferino Rodolfo welcomed the addition of another investment project in the Yolanda-stricken area.
“This will serve as a significant boost to the recovery efforts in the region, beefing up local tourism, further pushing economic growth, and providing more livelihood and employment opportunities to the people within the area,” he said.
BOI has been implementing a number of initiatives to fast track the socio-economic rehabilitation and re-development of the areas devastated by Yolanda.
The agency approved a total of 81 projects worth P128.5 billion in areas highly affected by the super typhoon from November 2013 to June 2017. These investments projects will generate 10,682 new jobs at full capacity.