(Left-Right) Socrates Alvaro - Managing Director and Senior Vice President-Operations, Megaworld Hotels & Resorts and Anna Liza Vergara - Managing Director and Senior Vice President-Operations, Megaworld Global Hospitality

Andrew Tan-led top township developer Megaworld Corp. is ramping up the expansion of its hospitality business, targeting 12,000 rooms by 2032 after setting its sights on some of the Philippines’ fastest-growing tourism destinations.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on Wednesday, Aug. 26, Megaworld said it is rolling out new hotel developments in key destinations, such as Palawan and Ilocos Norte provinces, alongside continued expansion in major tourism and business hubs across the country.

This expansion will include both Megaworld’s homegrown hotel brands and international brands, further strengthening the company’s position as the Philippines’ biggest developer and operator of hotel developments.

Apart from opening more hotels, Megaworld is also reshaping its hospitality business to prepare for a bigger and more global hospitality sector.

To drive this next phase of growth, Megaworld has established Megaworld Global Hotels and Resorts (MGHR) to bring together its growing hotel portfolio under two focused groups.

First is Megaworld Hotels & Resorts (MHR), which will manage the company’s hotel developments in Metro Manila, Boracay, Batangas, and Cebu.

Then there is Megaworld Global Hospitality (MGH), which will handle Mövenpick Manila Bay Westside, Megaworld’s biggest hotel property, as well as the company’s new hotel properties in Palawan and three hotels in Iloilo province: 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,” said Megaworld President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Lourdes Gutierrez-Alfonso.

To support this goal of helping boost the country’s tourism sector, she said, “we are making this bold move of expanding our hospitality organization with established veterans and innovators in the global hotels and leisure industry.”

“We see tourism as one of the most powerful engines of sustainable economic growth. Every hotel we build creates jobs, supports local businesses, brings visitors to new destinations, and opens more opportunities for communities to prosper,” said Kevin L. Tan, president and CEO of Alliance Global Group Inc. (AGI), the parent company of Megaworld.

He noted that “Through our expanding hospitality portfolio under MGHR, we want to help continue unlocking the immense tourism potential of the Philippines and bring more of our country’s destinations, culture, and world-class Filipino hospitality to travelers from around the globe.”

In line with this, the two Megaworld hospitality groups will be led by seasoned industry executives: Socrates Alvaro, who will be the managing director of MHR, and Anna Vergara, who is taking the helm as managing director of MGH.

Alvaro brings extensive hotel operations and leadership experience, with a distinguished track record built through various senior leadership roles within MHR.

His career spans nearly two decades across some of the world’s most dynamic and prestigious hospitality markets, including the United Kingdom (UK), United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, the Maldives, Thailand, and other key destinations across Asia.

Vergara, meanwhile, brings more than 32 years of distinguished experience with Marriott International, the world’s largest international hotel chain. She has built a reputation for excellence in hotel operations, leadership, and the development of high-performing teams.

Together, Alvaro and Vergara bring complementary strengths to the new organization—one anchored on Megaworld’s homegrown hospitality expertise and the other on global hotel standards and international brand management.

For the first half of 2026, Megaworld’s hospitality business emerged as the company’s fastest-growing recurring income segment, delivering an 11-percent increase in revenues to ₱3.1 billion.

The strong performance was fueled by the opening of the 405-room Belmont Hotel Iloilo, the company’s third hotel within its 72-hectare (ha) Iloilo Business Park and now the largest hotel in Iloilo City in terms of room inventory, bringing Megaworld’s total hotel portfolio in the city to nearly 1,000 rooms. - James A. Loyola