Ayala Land—controlled by billionaire Jaime Zobel de Ayala and his family’s Ayala Corp., the Philippines’ oldest conglomerate—will spend $500 million to almost double its hotel rooms by 2030 to ride the tourism boom.
Ayala Land Hospitality Corp. targets to have 7,500 room keys by 2030, up from over 4,000 now, Ayala Land chief financial officer Augusto Bengzon said in a statement to the stock exchange Wednesday.
Ayala Land has rebranded the unit into Ayala Land Hospitality from Ayala Land Hotels & Resorts to reposition it amid an expected travel boom, according to the statement.
Philippine billionaires from the heirs of the late Henry Sy Jr. to the family of industrialist John Gokongwei are expanding their hospitality assets nationwide as the upgrading of the country’s main international gateway and construction of new airports are expected to support tourism growth. The country has already attracted global hotel operators such as Marriott, Westin and Dusit Thani to expand in the archipelago.
Ayala Land Hospitality will reinvest in its flagship properties, modernize Seda business hotels and upgrade its El Nido Resorts in the idyllic Palawan islands, Ayala Land said. It will build new hotels and resorts, leveraging Ayala Land’s expansive estates nationwide, integrating these with the developer’s townships, Ayala Land said.
Ayala Corp. was started by the grandfather of Jaime Zobel de Ayala in 1834 as a distillery in Manila. The company has expanded into banking, real estate, telecommunications and energy. The family has a net worth of $2.6 billion, according to the list of the Philippines’ 50 richest published by Forbes Asia in August.
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