Onrush of memories flood Davao hotel’s site

DAVAO CITY — Marco Polo Davao’s social media site has been inundated with messages and memories of people who once spent moments at the city’s only five-star hotel here whose owners recently announced the closure on June 15.

Some of them still in a state of denial, netizens posted pictures of debuts, birthdays, anniversaries, past seminars and parties as they remembered the times they spent in a hotel that had stood as an important landmark in downtown Davao in the last 21 years.

“We will miss you,” commented Dr. Malou Monteverde, former president of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCCII), after the hotel posted on its website on Friday an “indefinite cessation” of its operation on June 15, thanking the public for their “heartwarming support.”

“We hope that you will reopen soon in better times and re-invent with the new (normal),” the business leader said.

Reeling from months of lockdown and the suspension of incoming flights that badly battered the country’s tourism sector, the hotel said it had to take the drastic move to protect the interest of its employees.

“Our priority is to take care of our associates while the company can. All of you have been the core and our stewards in building Marco Polo Davao. We will forever be grateful for your unconditional contribution,” the statement said.

Most of those who posted a message still expressed hope that would reopen soon after the crisis.

“I will be waiting for your reopening,” said Robby Alabado, a former city official here now an official of the Department of Tourism.

Considered as the only luxury hotel in Mindanao, Marco Polo Davao hotel, which has been managed by the international chain Marco Polo Hotels, opened in downtown Davao in 1998 and had since been the center of the city’s important events.  It would have turned  22 years in December this year.