PROPERTY developer Megaworld Corp. is accelerating its hospitality expansion, targeting nearly 12,000 hotel rooms by 2032 as it develops new properties in key tourism destinations, including Palawan and Ilocos Norte.
The company said Wednesday that the planned expansion would include both home-grown and international brands alongside continued growth in major tourism and business hubs across the country.
Megaworld is also reorganizing its hospitality business under Megaworld Global Hotels and Resorts (MGHR), which will oversee its growing hotel portfolio through two groups.
Megaworld Hotels & Resorts (MHR) will manage the company’s hotel developments in Metro Manila, Boracay, Batangas and Cebu.
Meanwhile, Megaworld Global Hospitality (MGH) will handle Mövenpick Manila Bay Westside, which the company described as its biggest hotel property, as well as new hotel properties in Palawan and three hotels in Iloilo — Courtyard by Marriott, Richmonde Hotel Iloilo, and Belmont Hotel Iloilo.
“One of our biggest contributions to nation-building is to help make our tourism industry more vibrant and attractive, especially to foreign visitors,” Megaworld President and CEO Lourdes Gutierrez-Alfonso said.
The company said the new organizational structure was intended to support the next phase of growth of its hospitality business by tapping executives with experience in both local and international hotel operations.
Socrates Alvaro will serve as managing director of MHR while Anna Vergara will lead MGH as managing director.
Alvaro has held senior leadership positions within Megaworld Hotels & Resorts and has nearly two decades of hospitality experience across various markets, including the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, the Maldives and Thailand.
Vergara, meanwhile, brings more than 32 years of experience with Marriott International, the company said.
The hospitality business was Megaworld’s fastest-growing recurring income segment in the first half of 2026, with revenues rising 11 percent from a year earlier to P3.1 billion.
The company attributed the growth partly to the opening of the 405-room Belmont Hotel Iloilo, its third hotel within the 72-hectare Iloilo Business Park.
The new property brought Megaworld’s total hotel room inventory in Iloilo to nearly 1,000 rooms, becoming the largest hotel in Iloilo City by room inventory, according to the company.
Kevin Tan, president and CEO of Alliance Global Group Inc., Megaworld’s parent company, said tourism remained a key driver of sustainable economic growth.
“We see tourism as one of the most powerful engines of sustainable economic growth,” he said, adding that the company’s expanding hotel portfolio aims to help unlock the country’s tourism potential and promote Philippine destinations, culture and hospitality to international travelers.
Megaworld shares added P0.01, or 0.44 percent, to close at P2.30 each on Wednesday amid a 0.86-percent drop for the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index.