IRs in the Philippines: NUSTAR Resort and Casino new hotel set for soft opening by year-end

The integrated resort is expected to be completed by 2027.

The Philippines.- NUSTAR Resort and Casino in Cebu has announced that its new 223-room hotel tower will have a soft opening by year-end. According to the Manila Times, the resort’s management said the integrated resort (IR) is expected to be fully completed by 2027.

Once finished, the PHP30bn (US$513.7m) IR will have 985 rooms and will be the biggest hotel complex in Cebu. It will have three hotel towers. Tower 1 will be super high-end, Tower 2 five-star and Tower 3 for the MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) market. 

The Fili hotel, one of the three brands integrated into the IR, started operations in 2022, featuring 379 hotel rooms along with 5,000 square meters of convention space, including three ballrooms. The casino area soft-opened in May 2022 with 40 tables and 400 slot machines.

The casino currently features 150 gaming tables and 1,000 slot machines and spans ​​21,000 square meters. NUSTAR assistant vice president for business development and resort marketing Katrina Mae De Jesus said the gaming space could be expanded to three more levels of the property and that the current eight private gaming rooms for junket operators on the second floor may also be further expanded.

The NUSTAR Resort and Casino is promoted by Robinsons Land Corp, a group controlled by privately owned Gokongwei Group. Earlier this month, the company announced plans to invest PHP10bn (US$177.7m) to expand its hotel portfolio. The company will add more than 990 room keys.The plans include launching the ultra-luxury hotel NuStar in Cebu, the lifestyle brand Grand Summit in Cebu and Pangasinan and the first Filipino-owned five-star hotel brand Fili in Bridgetowne, Metro Manila.

RHR operates 30 properties across 20 cities and municipalities in the Philippines.

Tourism in the Philippines: 4.4m visitors in first nine months of the year

The Department of Tourism (DOT) has reported that the Philippines received 4.4 million tourist arrivals in the first nine months of the year. That’s an increase of 9.89 per cent when compared to last year. Some 91.99 per cent of arrivals (4.08 million) were foreign tourists, including people classified as overseas Filipinos. This segment saw growth of 10.36 per cent compared to 2023.

South Korea remained the country’s biggest source market, accounting for 26.9 per cent of arrivals (1.19m). The figure was up 12.1 per cent when compared to last year. The United States was the second-biggest source market with 694,142 arrivals, 15.6 per cent of all arrivals. The figure was up 1.7 per cent from the prior-year period.

There were 293,658 arrivals from Japan, up 31.69 per cent in year-on-year terms, while China remained in the fourth spot, with 260,134 arrivals (6.6 per cent). This was a 30.27 per cent increase from last year.

The number of tourists from Taiwan increased by 14.8 per cent, and from India by 15.14 per cent. Vietnam had 10.5 per cent fewer visitors. Australia and Canada saw slight declines of 0.6 per cent and 3.2 per cent, respectively, in tourist numbers.

For the full year, the Philippines aims to attract 7.7 million arrivals. Last year, it received 5.45 million. In July, tourism secretary Christina Garcia Frasco reported that earnings from inbound visitors reached PHP282.17bn (US$4.83bn) in the first half.