CLARK. PAMPANGA – Midori Clark Hotel and Casino is set to raise the bar to hospitality service as it opened its doors to clients yesterday in a grand display of Chinese good luck rites—a lauriat featuring a “lechon” dance, classical music, a barbecue dinner with open bar and capped with fireworks.
No less than BB International Leisure and Resort Development Corp. (BBI) CEO Jack Yang, its president Dr. Ireneo “Bong” Alvaro, and Philippine Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel, III were on hand to do the ceremony Bai Bai luck rituals and traditional Dragon and Lion dance.
In his short speech during lunch Sen. Pimentel said that if the Midori management thinks that he brought luck to them as he was also the person who graced the groundbreaking rites years back. He also thinks that Midori brought luck to him as he was only a senatorial candidate then, and now he is the Senate President.
In the press conference that followed, the panel composed of Dr. Alvaro, hotel GM Vic Chan, Midori casino GM Manny Aure, and Aqua Planet GM Rafael Suarez gave additional input to media.
“This all started with a dream”, said Alvaro, stating that the project started with an idea in 2006. ” We want to raise the standards of tourism and hotel services through the leadership of our people, no less than five-star,” he added.
Chan declared that, since its soft opening last year, they have had 30,000 guests for an average 80% occupancy, plus around 15,000 who came for dining and other activities.
In terms of investment, Alvaro stated, “We have surpassed our commitment to the Philippine government of PhP2.5 billion as they we’re now at PhP8 billion; however, our company commitment is still only at 50 percent.”
In fact, BBI’s latest project is Aqua Planet. It will be the biggest water park (three times bigger than the present holder) set to open at the end of the year. Suarez said that up to 4,000 people can be accommodated and will all be state-of-the-art on operations and sustainability.
Future expansion like a new ballroom that can accommodate more than 1,000 persons are already in the blueprint as a 2-hectare property behind the hotel was a recent purchase. Chan hopes to have more rooms for the hotel to add to the existing 111 rooms.
