Investors bullish on medium, long-term hospitality industry growth — report

MANILA, Philippines — Several investors are confident with the growth of the hospitality industry in the Philippines in the next three years and more, according to a report.

On Friday, Leechiu Property Consultants (LPC) in partnership with the Philippine Hotel Owners Association (PHOA) released an inaugural Philippine Hotel Investment Outlook Survey which found that majority of investors in the country expressed an optimistic outlook for the hospitality growth.

At least 89% of the survey respondents said they are confident for the industry’s growth in the medium term or within one to three years. Of which, 64% voted for positive while 24% are very positive of the growing confidence for the hospitality industry.

On the other hand, outlook for long-term hotel industry growth within the next three years appears to be highly optimistic with 95% encouraging votes, 46% voted for positive while 49% were very positive with this prospect.

The findings align with LPC’s forecast that the hotel industry will fully recover by 2025.

Despite the positive outlook for the industry’s recovery, investors have mixed feelings over the short-term prediction of the hospitality industry within the one to twelve months amid the inflation that shoot ups the cost of transportation, commodities and services, impacting both the tourists and hotels.

The report cited that investors are still working to recover from COVID-19 pandemic-related losses with hotels allowed to fully resume operations in 2023.

“The Philippine hotel industry is a mixed bag, similar to the broader real estate market in 2024. We anticipate a complete industry recovery by 2025 as consumers maintain their willingness to spend on travel,” LPC’s report read.

“Despite the significant gap left by the loss of Chinese tourists, domestic tourism in the Philippines has shown itself to be a substantial and reliable growth driver, complemented by significant increases in Korean visitor arrivals,” it added.

The Department of Foreign Affairs last week imposed additional requirements for Chinese nationals applying for tourist visas. The Department of Tourism seeks to address this by attracting other tourist markets such as South