Staff, infrastructure help hotel bag award

After winning the Carlson Rezidor Hotels and Resorts Asia Pacific Hotel of the Year for 2012 award early this month in China, Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu executive expressed optimism in their property’s growth this year.

Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu general manager Lyle Lewis said the award was partly due to the naturally warm and accommodating people in Cebu and the hotel’s physical infrastructure.

“We competed with 58 other hotel properties in the the group in the Asia Pacific region,” said Lewis last Friday.

He said winning the award proved that the Cebu hotel, which was one month away from turning two years old, was among the best performing hotel properties of the group.

He said it was significant because it takes about five years for a new property to stabilize operations and become profitable.

“The award is a recognition of the past 12 months considering a whole range of criteria set by the group,” said Lewis.

The criteria includes profitability, customer and employee satisfaction and feedback posted in social media.

The hotel scored very high in all areas like profitability versus budget and customer satisfaction, which was among the highest rates in Southeast Asia, he said.

With the award, Radisson Blu management is aiming to be the top hotel in Cebu in a wide range of markets from leisure to corporate and MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions.

Lewis said physical infrastructure must be matched with the best service which happens only by having the best staff.

“I believe that we are the newest in Cebu. Our meeting facilities are larger which is what the corporate market will be looking for to hold their events,” said Lewis.

He noted that the Cebu market continued to be supply-driven, with more new hotels being established.

“The market has not really grown at the same rate as the number of hotels opening. Our plan is to strengthen further our position over the next couple of years. With the recent recognition, we are ever more positive that we can do it,” said Lewis.

He said that it would be a big help to the industry if there was more access to Cebu from international markets through direct flights.

“We are attracting the North American and Australian markets, but our feeder markets remain majority domestic travelers then followed by Korea and Japan, USA and Europe,” he said.

“We usually get European guests from Singapore and Hong Kong. These markets could further be developed through access like more direct flights.”

Lewis said he was saddened when Qatar Airways stopped their routes in Cebu last year.

He said that the overall success of Cebu’s tourism industry would be defined by how the public and private sectors work together.

“All issues and goals can be well addressed and achieved through a joint-effort by both public and private sectors,” said Lewis.