Finding Happiness at Alegre Beach Resort

In gay lingo, there is the phrase “Alona Alegre,” after the eighties sexy starlet, meaning alone. It describes my state when I stayed in Alegre Beach Resort, a posh getaway at the northeastern part of Cebu, not a very favorable thing especially with an aching heart and in a somber weather. Cold drizzle fell during my stay in late April, jabbing at my loneliness and doubts. The place’s honeymoon feel seemed to foment uneasiness. I often enjoyed solitude and serenity. Still involved in a trying affair, I was reacquainting myself with the sweetness of solitude, now in an exquisite setting.

Alegre is Spanish for “happiness,” so I tried to find it. I knew that it can be found in little things as much as in grand things—little things like dainty flowers on the bed and on the table, dewdrops on grass, the smell of old books and fresh soap, a faint smile, the softness of pillows and beds, a tiny seashell on the shore, the taste of a new dish with makopa, an old song, the fresh scent of rain, the falling of dried leaves on a windy day, the sight of an unfamiliar bird straying to the verandah, etc., and grand things like a spectacular sunset, a stretch of white-sand beach, a well-appointed room with spacious bathroom and bathtub all for yourself, etc. They may not solve problems but their beauty, if we can perceive and appreciate it, inspires us and invigorates to go on. There are many happinesses.

Alegre Beach Resort seems to have all the instruments for and embodiments of happiness. I opened the doors of my room, well-equipped, tasteful and promising an enjoyable stay. The wooden floors are polished and felt good on the feet. The furnishings were made of woven palms leaves or vines or had woven accents. The two beds were nice and comfortable. The room had amenities befitting a five-star resort— satellite television with in-house movies, tea and coffee maker, an in-room safe, IDD telephone, individually controlled air-conditioning system, a mini bar, among others. At the other end of the room was the spacious bathroom, a delight. The bathtub sat at the middle.

I let myself fall on the bed, smelled the clean bed sheet and hugged a large pillow, imbibing the serenity and the plushiness. Every now and then, I looked at the door and the verandah that opened to the view of the sky and sea.

Mostly I stayed this cocooned during my stay and roamed the resort premises. I did not venture out, uncharacteristic of me, especially being first time in this part of the Visayan island. Maybe I felt unadventurous or lazy. Alegre is located in the barangay of Calumboyan, a rather remote part of Sogod. There is a long trek out to the highway or town center. I procrastinated venturing out and ultimately reserved exploring Sogod to another trip.

“There is an attractive hot spring nearby, several waterfalls, a cottage industry producing woven products as well as other handicrafts, the local market with seafood products, several Old Spanish churches…” Alegre’s German-Austrian general manager Fritz Kahler enumerated the interesting sites in the area.

I could imagine them. Alegre’s “unusual” location is an attraction to me. In Cebu, most resorts clustered in or around the capital, Cebu City, and the nearby island of Mactan, including a Shangri-La property, the Plantation Bay Resort and Spa, the Pulchra Resort, the Hilton Resort and Spa, and the Maribago Bluewater Resort, all well-known. Resorts also are flourishing in the southern part of the province where there are numerous dive spots, the town of Moalboal in particular. There also is the beautiful Badian Island Resort and Spa in Badian, most well-known and posh among them.

The resorts in the city and in Mactan enjoy accessibility with the Mactan International Aiport just several minutes away. On the other hand, Sogod is about 80 kilometers away, about one-and-a-half hour drive.

“It seems to be a disadvantage [being in Sogod] when talking to travel agents due to the ‘long travel,’ but once guests travel [to the resort] they are generally enjoying the trip. We try to place emphasis on the fact that you get to see an interesting part of the island such as the fishing villages, the old Spanish churches etc.,” Kahler admitted.

“Most important is the natural white-sand beach. This is where Sogod got its name,” Kahler pointed to the one good quality of the town. “South of Sogod, all the sand is black.”
Kahler has been with Alegre Beach Resort for three years now and had been in the Philippines since 1978. “I have lived in the Philippines before, have a Filipina as my wife so I am traveling in and out for about 30 years,” he related.

Born in Klagenfurt, Austria, Kahler had been posted in many countries. Before Alegre, he “came from setting up a resort in Shenzhen, China, and “prior to that I was managing hotels and resorts in Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore among others.”

“I worked for ten years for Shangri-La and 15 years for InterContinental Hotels,” he added.
Also, he was the general manager of the Punta Baluarte InterContinental in Calatagan, Batangas, and the Davao Insular Hotel from 1978 to 1982.

“I had been to Cebu many times but am a bit disappointed how polluted and dirty it has become. Too much traffic and no solutions in sight,” Kahler lamented but added, “While Cebu is really the second largest city in the Philippines, it is in a way relatively small, and therefore despite heavy traffic one doesn’t spend hours stuck in traffic unlike in Manila. I go regularly to Manila; have been to Baguio, Boracay, Hundred Islands; traveled by car from Manila to Cebu, Davao, Batangas.”

Still, “the friendliness and smile of the people, the fact that they all speak English” made a good impression on the hospitality executive, perhaps enough to have a Filipina wife, Cynthia Valmonte, whom he met at Punta Baluarte while she was the food and beverage manager there.
Still, whenever he can he goes to the city to “try other restaurants and wines I haven’t tried before.” This he does during spare time if not listening to music, reading and playing golf and tennis, but “there isn’t so much time off since I live inside the resort,” he averred.

It may not be a very bad thing since the 17-year-old resort is lovely, an attraction itself despite the disadvantage of distance. You can go all the way only for the resort itself.

Alegre Beach Resort nestles on a slope that goes down to three coves with white sand. The whole property is actually 27 hectares, only seven hectares of which are developed. The developed area is beautifully landscaped with lush gardens.

“Its spacious layout offers privacy to its guests. Beautiful gardens with numerous flowering plants and trees complement the overall concept,” Kahler said.

Amidst the gardens are the accommodations—large huts they call cabanas. There are 19 of them, handsome with thick grass roof. Each has two separate rooms, totaling to 38.
“Alegre uses local and Spanish design features,” Kahler further explained. “Materials used are mainly from the area such as cogon, wood, etc, and the accommodation is spacious offering high-class comfort indoors and outdoors on the verandahs.”

The rooms can be called modern rustic. It is not the rustic in the sense that they are rough and plain. It is the kind that ensouls modern luxury. In the room, I loved the things that surrounded me. In the bathroom, I sniffed the soap that looked like a bar of white chocolate and smelled of peppermint candy. I almost ate it. The bathtub was strewn with flower petals, waiting for warm water and a warm body. I deemed a bath too luxurious for me at the moment. I opted to wander about.

The cabanas are connected by narrow paths made of coral stone and limestone, with thick and tall hedges bordering them. Sometimes, my walk took some time; I often stopped and looked at the fossils. The path goes to different cabanas, to the spa, to the three coves, to the restaurant, to the main reception area.

The Alegre Spa, once a guest cabana converted into the Serenity Cabana overlooking Talisay Beach, is of Zen Oriental design with hand-painted walls and embellished with handicrafts and tapestries from Indonesia. It offers massages, body wraps, body scrubs, facials and indulgences packages.

The three coves are named Talisay, Crescent and Fisherman’s with white sand and beach lounges with cobalt-blue cushions. The largest, Talisay, has the Cliff Seafood BBQ and Bar, also with a roof of dried grass, offering cocktails and beer, salads and freshly grilled meats and seafood catch of the day. Chairs and tables are set under the talisay trees with music, the Latin and reggae types, softly melding with the splashing of the shore.

At Fisherman’s Cove, the aqua sports center offer diving paraphernalia, diving tours and water activities. The list of diving sites in northern Cebu proves to be exciting—coral gardens, shipwrecks, a wreck of a lighthouse, and the marine sanctuary, which is maintained by the resort right at their marine doorstep.

“[The resort’s] owners are the Pathfinder Corporation, based in Manila and Hong Kong. Owners are divers hence the special emphasis on a dive station,” Kahler informed.
Non-divers can opt for snorkeling, kayaking, banana boating, Jet-skiing, plain boating, cruising, fishing and bird watching.

The sunset cruise and dolphin watching offer is particularly interesting. Bottle-nosed and long-snouted spinner dolphins are commonly spotted. Sometimes melon-headed and pilot whales show up. You can have island adventures to the Camotes, Calanggaman, Quatro Islas, Capitancillo and Olango, a bird sanctuary, which has restaurants on stilts in the barangay of Caw-oy. Olango Island is the destination for bird-watchers with the largest concentration of migratory birds found in the country, 48 out of the 77 species in the East Asian Migratory Flyway. This is aside from the 42 resident bird species. For fishing, one can expect to catch trevally, jacks, barracudas, groupers, snappers and mullets. From November to February, there are the additional Spanish mackerel, wahoo, bonito, mahi-mahi and small tuna species.

Alegre Beach Resort also offers a host of non-water tours and activities. Aside from the one-hole putting green of Alegre, the resort can take golfer guests to Mercedes Golf Course in Dayhagon, Medellin, and Club Filipino in Pulangyuta, Danao City. Their wives can have a shopping spree in Cebu City. There is a gift shop inside the resort, by the way.

On Sunday, the resort can take the religious to Sogod’s church and the non-religious to the cockfight at the town proper. The urban excursionist has a tour of Cebu City, while the outdoorsy types can have biking and trekking trips. Biking from Calumboyan to the town of Borbon is recommended. There is a tennis court for the Agassi wannabe. Indoor games and board games can be had at the game room. Look for interesting reads in its library. The resort also put up cultural shows. There are many diversions.

The conference rooms and the business center are for those who meant, well, business. They are at the airy, grass-roofed main reception hall with a chandelier made of a big wheel. It overlooks a 47-meter swimming pool with two children’s pools, which in turn overlook the Camotes Sea.
At one end of the resort is a gazebo overlooking the sea. The afternoon I stumbled on it, it was set up for a private romantic dinner. Bougainvillea blossoms were strewn on the path and the floor. The posts were adorned with fern leaves. The balls of light were on and the table carefully arranged. Someone will propose, I surmised.

There have been weddings here—“several dream weddings where guests from all over the world rented the whole resort for several days, an unforgettable way to get married,” Kahler recounted.

Beside the swimming pool is the resort’s main dining place, the Pavilion, an old but charming restaurant perched on a cliff. Its executive chef Martin Przewodnik oversees the preparation of Filipino, Asian and international dishes with pizza, pasta and seafood. There is a healthy “spa menu” and the chef’s specially selected items, slowly cooked in their wood-fired brick oven. Requiring advance order, the special items include baked fish of the day, U.S. beef top blade or pork leg in clay, and barbecued fish of the day, U.S. beef top blade or pork leg in banana trunk.
There is the regular buffet, which I largely partook. My food diary, April 25, 2008, entry listed mushroom salad, crabmeat and corn soup, rice salad, roasted potatoes, shrimp sisig Alegre style, chicken baked in tomato and pesto, macopa salad, chocolate cherry cake and seasonal fruits. The following night was largely Filipino—seafood sinigang, grilled liempo and parrotfish and kaldereta. There was my comment: “Delicious!”

During dinner, a band serenaded diners, who are mostly couples. I am okay with dining alone, but the though of people wondering about my solitude made my uneasy. I communed with my food, the flickering flame on the table and the night.

If not preoccupied with anything, I noted the other guests. Kahler said that Filipinos form three-fifth of their clientele and the rest are foreigners. “The Philippine nationals, either residing here or balikbayans,” he said. “Second is the Japanese, then the Koreans followed by Russians and others.”

“Local guests are mostly families, many for reunions, and balikbayans,” Kahler explained. “From the Korean market, it’s honeymooners. From the Japanese market, it’s mostly families as well as honeymooners. From Hong Kong, we get families who either purely come to relax or go diving and to play golf.”

All of course are in pursuit of happiness. Happiness though is always of the hedonistic kind. Pleasure can be derived from helping others and doing something for the community, which the resort itself also pursues.

“Alegre is firstly a very eco-friendly resort,” Kahler said. “It recycles all water for use in the gardens, collects rainwater for use in the laundry, staff accommodation and engineering, heats water for the kitchen using the excess heat of its pizza oven, grows organic vegetables and produces its own compost from leaves and grass.”

One manifestation of the resort’s ecological endeavor is the maintenance of a marine sanctuary, with a coral reef recovery and desiltation program that aims to preserve and protect the reef ecosystem and restore the biodiversity of the area. According to Kahler, it is a milestone for Algere, this “successful creation of our marine sanctuary, which contributed to a healthy increase in the fish population, which not only made the resort more attractive to guests but assists local fisherman in increasing their catch.”

Kahler further said, “Secondly, [the resort has] responsibility to the community. It supports community projects year round and subsidizes two schools. Thirdly, Alegre supports schools with a hospitality curriculum by accepting its students on a regular basis, training suitable candidates from the base up and hiring suitable candidates whenever a position is available. Promotion from within is a policy.”

I left Alegre Beach Resort very early morning. It was still dark, but we began our drive to the airport, passing by still sleeping towns, beautiful in their desolation. I did not think of the meaning of the name Alegre and instead had an image of Alegre as a place of quiet wonder.

Getting There
Several airlines travel to Cebu daily, landing at the Mactan International Airport. From the airport, Alegre is about 80 kilometers away (90 minutes by car). From Cebu City, Alegre is 66 kilometers away (85 minutes by car). Alegre Beach Resort is at Calumboyan, Sogod, Cebu.

Contact Information
Alegre Beach Resort’s reservation office at Sogod has telephone numbers (+63 32) 254-9800, 2549811 and 2549822 local 172, and direct line: (+63 32) 255-6388; fax: number (+63 32) 254-9833; emails reserve@alegrebeachresort.com and guest@alegrebeachresort.com; postal address P.O. Box 1094, Cebu City Philippines.
The Cebu sales and reservation office is at Nivel Hills, Lahug, Cebu City, with telephone number (+63 32) 231-1198, fax number (+63 32) 233-7944, and email address cbusales@alegrebeachresort.com.
The Metro Manila sales and reservations office is at Unit 1204, Tycoon Center, Pearl Drive, Ortigas Center, Pasig City, with telephone numbers (+63 2) 634 7505 to 07, fax number (+63 2) 633-1833, and email address alegresales@pldtdsl.net.
The Tokyo general sales agent is Sanyo International with office at the fourth floor of Nonaka Bldg., 1-18-2 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo, Japan, with telephone number (+81 3) 3461-8585, fax number (+81 3) 3461-8550, and email address sanyo-reservations@k8.dion.ne.jp.
Log on to www.alegrebeachresort.com.

The Boracay Regency: Reigning Over the White Sand

There was more than the usual buzz at the center and most happening portion of White Beach, whose powdery white sand has become almost legendary and made the resort island of Boracay in Western Visayas famous. Resorts and restaurants huddle together and jostle for space to get a piece of the precious white-sand area. Above them the Boracay Regency Beach Resort and Convention Center rises, a clean structure recognizable for its size, its nautilus logo and grand staircase with cascading water.

In mid-April, in the middle of the Philippine summer, the resort was extra busy but not with the usual tourists, who flock to the country’s topmost destination. Its cafes and restaurants were constantly filled with delectable dishes for its special guests—an assortment of celebrities, businessmen, socialites, diplomats and journalists—as they went through the resorts’ events. Passers-by stopped and took photos of soap stars Kristine Hermosa and Diether Ocampo, known for their unpredictable love affair, as they basked in the sun on the resort’s beachfront, the longest on the island. At the open-air café, singer Pops Fernandez, the main entertainer for the main event, appeared and was introduced to a group of diplomats. Johnny Litton, the emcee for the main event, introduced them to each other: This is the ambassador or the consul of this and that country, said Johnny to Fernandez, and to the rest, he said with a grand gesture, this is the Philippines’ Concert Queen.

But the biggest royalty that day was the resort itself, which was celebrating its 10th anniversary. On the night of April 11, 2008, the anniversary was celebrated with the most delicious food and choice entertainment. Throughout the day, they were announcing developments and inaugurating new features.
At the beachfront, a new café was opened and the old ones showed some refurbishment. At the new wing, inside the resort, a spa was unveiled. Further inland, a short walk from the resort and along the island’s main road, the resort executives broke ground for the construction of another resort.

“I didn’t expect it to be like this today,” intoned the mild-mannered owner of Boracay Regency Henry O. Chusuey. “It was just for fun and a little business.”
We were at the spanking Zhu Asian Cuisine Restaurant, which was to be inaugurated later in the day. The name of the restaurant came from the Chinese spelling of his last name. Chusuey’s grandfather migrated from China to Iloilo, one of the commercial centers of the Visayan group of islands in central Philippines, about 140 kilometers south of Boracay. He had no idea from where in China his grandfather came. Our talk took a bit of tracing the past and a bit of anticipating the future.

In Iloilo, Chusuey was engaged in the financing business and real estate development. He owned the neo-classical Regent Theater, a known landmark in Iloilo City and the oldest existing movie theatre in the province of Iloilo, having been built in 1928. Owning and managing a resort was not in his plans. Then he went to Boracay Island in 1983.

“Everybody was talking about Boracay,” Chusuey related. “At that time, there was nothing here, no electricity, no telephone, nothing. There were cottages, like squatter, small cottages. You have to bring everything with you—ice, canned goods….”

He remembered that going to Boracay entailed driving for six hours from Iloilo on rough roads, and negotiating for a boat ride in Caticlan. He liked the island though and decided to build a vacation house.

“I just wanted to have a place of my own,” he said. “Later, I thought that if I had a house and had to maintain it, I might as well build a small hotel and maybe have some income along with having a place to stay.”

Being a businessman, Chusuey admitted that having a business in Boracay gives him reason to return. “You are forced to go every two or three weeks with this business,” he said.

Chusuey opened Boracay Regency in 1998 with 43 rooms on a 3,700 square-meter beachfront property he leased. With the assistance of an architect and designer, he designed the resort itself, drawing inspiration from resorts he stayed in and saw in his travels to Bali in Indonesia and Phuket in Thailand. Although having no prior background, designing the resort did not prove difficult for Chusuey.

“It was just common sense,” he said. “You think of the best shape and that all space must be useful, like for swimming pool, garden and even the open space.”

The difficulty lay in the construction itself.

“Everything had to be imported from the mainland,” he related. “Even the sand and gravel, we had to bring them from the other side.”

There were other resorts built ahead of him, mostly having 10 to 30 rooms. At the time it opened, Boracay Regency was already the second biggest resort after Club Panoly, which had 55 rooms.

“Our resort became one of the first in the island to have international standard luxury rooms, an air-conditioned restaurant, a crystal clear swimming pool, and a function room,” Chusuey said. “In the same year Boracay Regency was the first resort in the long beach to receive a Triple A rating, the highest rating in the resort category given by the Department of Tourism.”

Regency kept growing. It added an additional 85 rooms, its second phase, in 2001. In 2004, it opened the third phase with 110 more rooms and a staircase leading to the beach. It also opened a convention center, which can accommodate 700 people, the biggest and the only one in the island.

Two years later, 90 rooms were opened in the fourth phase of the resort’s construction. The rooms now total to 285, spread over 18,000 square meters of property, making Boracay Regency the biggest resort in the island so far. The new rooms are in the posh Garden Wing of the resort with a new reception and lobby and encircling two swimming pools, gleaming with its turquoise tiles.

“Ten years and 285 world-class rooms later, Boracay Regency is a resort with no lean season,” declared Chusuey during the resort’s anniversary celebration.

During the occasion, he awarded loyal employees while guests dressed in summer chic enjoyed a sumptuous buffet of grilled seafood and roasts, salads and cheeses, and hot dishes and desserts on the beachfront. He also revealed his secret for success.

“One of the reasons why this resort was built was to provide luxury rooms and service to tourists at a fair rate,” Chusuey said. “Through the years we realized that our objective of providing our guests with quality rooms and service as well as value for money has paid off. This would then manifest in the number of arrivals each year even on the so-called off-peak seasons.”
He further said, “Our business’s success is mostly credited to our mission of satisfying our guests’ expectations. We give them an experience to remember in this beautiful island without charging them too much….Our resort is probably number one in room occupancy because for us value for money for our guests is important. We keep on improving our services and very often we renovate our rooms for our guests comfort and satisfaction. I guess it’s safe to say that we have satisfied all our guests because most of them keep on coming back.”

And he is giving more reasons for guests to come back. The sleek Zhu restaurant adds to the dining options of Boracay Regency with its Asian menu. Already there are the Sea Breeze Café, with its international cuisine and view of the sea; Café Christina, a fine-dining restaurant with a selection of wine, prime cuts of beef, seafood and a menu of Italian and Filipino cuisines; and Regency Food Plaza, an open-air dining plaza with a choice of Chinese, Japanese or Korean cuisines. There is also the Mexican-inspired MO2 Wave Bar, deemed as the first and only underground bar in the island, which features live music, a dance floor and five KTV rooms.
Along with Zhu, the Kai Regency Spa, at the third level of the Garden Wing, was inaugurated. Conceptualized by spa consultant Cathy Velez, the spa has different themes for the each room but has an overall Asian vibe, using materials like stone, wood and bamboo. Aside form the regular menu of treatments and massages, Kai offers its own pampering packages like the Romantic Paradise, which lasts for five hours, costs Php13,500 and treats couples to a candlelight rose petal milk bath, an aromatherapy stone massage, a Choco Lovers souffle gommage, a purifying facial and a romantic dinner at Café Christina.

But the biggest development is the Regency Lagoon, boasted to have 120 luxurious rooms with terraces and direct access to the pool, which will be the biggest in the island. Chusuey earmarked P250 million for the construction of the Regency Lagoon on a 7,800-square-meter lot along Boracay’s main road, which began in May and will finish on November 2008. One-thousand-two-hundred square meters are reserved for the pool, which will feature white sand and artificial waves, perhaps to compensate for its distance from the beach. But the new resort promises to be secluded and intimate, “away from the hustle and bustle of the crowds,” and “slightly cheaper than Boracay Regency because it is not beachfront,” Chusuey said.

Chusuey has another property at the other side of the island, in the barangay of Manoc-Manoc, with half kilometer of beach, but there is no plans yet of building a resort there. What is more concrete are his plans for building resorts in other parts of the country, particularly in Bohol in Central Visayas and Palawan.

By the end of 2008, after Regency Lagoon, Chusuey will start constructing Bohol Regency on a five hectare property near the tourist strip of Alona Beach on the island of Panglao in Bohol. He expects the completion of a 300-room resort in two years. Only 25 percent of the property will be reserved for the structure while the rest is open space.

After Bohol, he will tackle Palawan. He owns an island in Coron in the northern part of Palawan, where he plans a high-end and private resort, much like Amanpulo in Cuyo.

Nowadays, Chusuey, who is also the president of the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Panay, is as busy as ever. Most of his time now is spent in managing the resort.
Things changed fast for Boracay Island and Chusuey. Boracay still remains much-talked about but now in national and international scopes. The island sees more than half a million tourists arriving in a year, and the number increases every year. Resorts have cropped up almost everywhere, and amenities and conveniences are readily available. Before, Chusuey had to endure six hours of rough road. With developments, it now only takes only four hours from Iloilo, and transportation facilities are adequate. But Chusuey now takes his own plane, which takes about 35 minutes from Iloilo.

Chusuey said that Boracay has “probably the best beach in the world,” but ironically, “I don’t enjoy now the beach,” he said. “I’m here for business. I didn’t expect that. I was supposed to come here to enjoy.” Now, he has to go to Bali or Phuket to have a vacation. But he has no regrets. He is busy thinking about how Boracay can compete with Bali and Phuket.

Getting There
Boracay Island is about 315 kilometers (200 miles) south of Manila and two kilometers off the northwest tip of the island of Panay in the Western Visayas . Airplanes fly frequently from Manila to Kalibo, the capital of Aklan, and Caticlan, a barangay of Malay. Flight time is about 45 minutes. From Kalibo, there will be a 90-minute road trip to Caticlan. In Caticlan, there is 15-minute ride on the resort’s private boat, which will take guests to the rear of the island, where they will be picked up in a private car to Boracay Regency.

Contact Information
Boracay Regency Beach Resort and Convention Center is at Station 2, Balabag, Boracay, Malay, Aklan, with telephone number (63) (36) 288-6111-117, fax number (63) (36) 288-6777 and emails main@boracayregency.com, regency@info.com.ph and regency8267@yahoo.com. Its Manila sales office is at U5B, 5th Floor, W. Deepz Building, 1033 M.H. del Pilar Street, Ermita, Manila, with telephone number (63) (2) 523-1234, fax numbers (63) (2) 523-9790 , (63) (2) 521-7529 and email rsvn@boracayregency.com. Log on to www.boracayregency.com.

The Panoly Resort Hotel Renews its Vision

The four-star Panoly Resort Hotel, at the northern part of Boracay Island, reaffirms its initial vision of being a first-class luxury establishment in the Philippines’ most popular beach tourist destination. The resort has been undergoing refurbishment and redevelopment since 2006. Although delayed by typhoons last year, the upgrade is about 70 percent done and is expected to be completed by the end of 2007, according to Tommy Chia, the president of the resort.

Aside from the makeovers of the existing rooms and facilities, the Panoly is building a 100-unit condotel, a spa and more recreational and dining facilities. With these new developments, the resort is also enlivening its promotional activities, having been low-profile in the past years.

The Panoly Resort Hotel is one of the pioneering resorts in Boracay, just off the northwestern tip of the province Aklan and the island of Panay. “In 1988, we started building,” reminisced Chia, Singaporean former pilot, who jocularly calls himself a “Singapino,” during a press conference in Makati City. “Boracay in those days consisted of shanty guesthouses operated by foreigners catering to foreign backpackers.”

Chia had been visiting the Philippines many times and went to Boracay during one of his diving excursions. He noticed a shortage, if not a total lack, of quality hotels. Jose Antonio Gonzales, then secretary of the Department of Tourism, encouraged and then supported him in building a hotel. Chia said that he was going against conventional wisdom in establishing a resort. Plunging into the resort business for the first time, he didn’t make any feasibility studies, and during that time, there was no regular transportation to the island nor a supply of power and water. Despite this, he had an audacious vision of establishing the first luxury resort in Boracay.

In 1989, Club Panoly, owned by the Singapore-based CTW Groups, opened and was given a Triple A rating by the Department of Tourism, the first to be accredited as such on the island. In 1996, the resort explored the timeshare concept by affiliating with Resorts Condominium International (RCI), opening Club Panoly Membership Division. In 2004, it was renamed the Panoly Resort Hotel.

The Panoly Resort Hotel is located at a secluded cove in Punta Bunga at the northwestern tip of Boracay, a few kilometers from the much developed and famed White Beach area. On its four-hectare beach front property are nine octagonal clusters of five cottages and a four-storey building containing 55 deluxe rooms and suites. The rooms of the hotel, which sits further inland, have verandas that afford guests a panoramic view of the beach and the surrounding landscape. All rooms are equipped with the requisites of a luxury resort, from cable television to full air-conditioning. The eight suites have their own Jacuzzis and mini kitchens. The rooms and the resort itself are said to be designed mixing the native and the contemporary.

There are ample dining options inside the resort, with three restaurants serving Asian, Italian and Continental cuisines. At the center of the resort is Cafe Punta Bunga, which offers pastas, sandwiches, native and international favorites, cakes, pastries and gourmet dishes prepared by their executive chef. The Yum Yum Restaurant serves seafood and Asian dishes, particularly Singaporean. Cafe Havana affects a Cuban atmosphere with its music. On the other hand, Panoly has two bars: the Bikini Bar, which serves drinks and finger food at a uniquely designed bar by the pool; and the Voodoo Bar, which is a chill-out place by the beach with salsa and Caribbean music.

The resort offers a range of recreational and sports activities including golf, boat tours, jet skiing, parasailing, kayaking, pedal boat, fly fishing, banana boating, snorkeling and scuba diving. Its spa has a range of body and beauty treatments for tired souls.

The Panoly is building a bigger spa, housed in a two-storey structure being built near the beachfront. The building will also house a coffee shop and a Chinese restaurant.

After all the years and with the developments, Chia said that they are still true to the initial vision, that they are still “holding on to our dreams.” They said their efforts have paid off. Numerous investments have been and major developments have transpired on Boracay. On the Punta Bunga, where the resort is, the surrounding hills sprouted little cottages where residential estates are planned. The major development in the area and on the whole of the island is the coming in of the Shangri-la group, a major chain of luxury resorts and hotels. “Our perseverance attracted hoteliers like the Shangri-la group, which invested $100 million next to us,” said Chia.

“Credit must be given to the private sector, which contributed to the success of Boracay,” added Chia, who is one of the founders of the Boracay Foundation.

Established in 1996, the local business association, which is made up by establishments on the island including big resorts and hotels, airlines, restaurants, dive shops, water sport stations, banks, market stalls, island organizations, residents and expatriates, aims to promote its businesses as well as address environmental and social concerns. Thus, according to Chia, the environment is taken into account in any of their endeavors.

Although most of the development is concentrated along the White Beach area, Chia aims at making the relatively less-crowded northern part of Boracay a location for “discerning tourists,” those in search of quality and of the high-end away from the highly “commercialized” area of the island. He said that they are trying to be an alternative choice for those tourists, offering some sort of exclusivity and maintaining a “cosmopolitan ambiance.”

Published in The Daily Tribune, 09 August 2007, page 12.

Contact Information
The Panoly Resort Hotel is located at Punta Bunga, Boracay, Malay, Aklan, with telephone number +63-36-288-3011 and fax number +63-36-288-3134. The Manila sales and marketing office is at the ground floor of ACT Tower, 135 Sen. Gil Puyat Ave., Salcedo Village, Makati City, with telephone number +632 812-2233 (local 401 for sales and marketing, 403 for reservation, and 101 for member services), and fax numbers +632 812-6455 and +632 812-6434. Email at info@thepanoly.com, msdmanager@thepanoly.com (for member services) or reservation@thepanoly.com (for reservations). Log on to www.thepanoly.com.