Category: Review

A photograph taken by Mr. George Tapan on Onuk Island in Balabac, Palawan has bested 21,000 entries from 130 countries to be the winner of the National Geographic Photo Contest 2011.  The winning photograph titled “Into the Green Zone” bagged the first place in the Places Category of the highly prestigitious National Geographic photo contest.  The winning photos were judged by respected National Geographic magazine photographers Tim Laman, Amy Toensing, and Peter Essick.

The Araneta Group will start accepting guests at the Novotel Manila Araneta Centre in Cubao, Quezon City, the “crown jewel” of its multibillion-peso redevelopment of bustling Araneta Center.

Novotel Manila is envisioned to be the only upscale hotel in Quezon City that will offer a “five-star experience at four-star prices,” said Araneta Group chairman and CEO Jorge L. Araneta.  Michael Issenberg, chairman and COO of Accor Asia-Pacific, flew to Manila to take part in the ceremony and expressed confidence that the hotel would be a “great success.”

Berjaya Hotels and Resorts of Malaysia is spending PhP200 million for the renovation of Makati Avenue Hotel.

SM Investments Corp. plans to open its PhP3-billion five-star hotel in Cebu City by the second half of the year. The company said Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu. , a project of its wholly-owned unit SM Hotels and Conventions Corp., would start operation at the city’s North Reclamation Area right beside SM City Cebu shopping mall complex.

Oakridge Properties Inc. is seeking fiscal incentives for its planned PhP360-million modernisation of Discovery Suites, a luxury hotel in Ortigas.

Movenpick Resort & Spa Cebu, formerly the Hilton Cebu Resort & Spa, is now managed by Swiss-based Movenpick Hotels and Resorts.  The hotel thus became the first Movenpick hotel in the Philippines.

Zest Airways Inc. plans to launch more regional flights this year as it expands its fleet with the addition of two Airbus A320 planes to meet growing passenger traffic.  Company president and CEO Alfredo Yao said the carrier would introduce scheduled flights to Incheon, Korea and Shanghai, China from Manila in June and direct flights from Manila to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in October.

Zest Air is also launching Clark-Hong Kong, Clark-Bangkok and Clark-Singapore flights in the last quarter of 2012.

“Our total passengers for our domestic flights this January is 224,723 compared to 150,091 in January last year, while for our international flights we had 35,638 passengers versus 15,990,” said Mr. Yao.