Megaworld’s Andrew Tan named Real Estate Personality of the Year

The founder, chairman and president of Megaworld Corporation since its incorporation in 1989, Dr. Andrew L. Tan pioneered the “live, work, play, learn” model in Philippine real estate development through his company’s 18-hectare integrated township community, Eastwood City, transforming the Quezon City district into a magnet for investments and a dynamic growth centre for the business process outsourcing industry.

He serves as chairman of the publicly listed Alliance Global Group, which holds interest in property development through Megaworld Corp.; integrated tourism development through Global-Estate Resorts, Inc.; Travellers International Hotel Group, Inc., which owns Resorts World Manila; food and beverage manufacturing and distribution through Emperador, Inc.; and Golden Arches Development Corporation, which operates and franchises quick service restaurants under the McDonald’s brand.

With tourism continuing to be a major growth driver of the Philippine economy, recent years have seen Megaworld Corporation and Travellers International Hotel Group working toward building more hotels to accommodate the country’s tourist arrivals.

For me, this award is both a reminder and an inspiration to keep looking for opportunities to do more

“Tourism continues to be a major contributor to our GDP,” said Tan, upon receiving his award at the Philippines Property Awards 2014 ceremony. “President Benigno Aquino believes that tourism is the low-hanging fruit of our economy. Our very own (Tourism) Secretary Jimenez recently said that ‘tourism is the new agriculture’ for the Philippines. Personally, I am very excited about the potential of tourism. I agree with the secretary that it is one of the industries that will deliver inclusive growth.”

Leveraging on Philippine tourism’s growth trajectory, Tan shares his bold vision of being the largest hotel developer in the Philippines by 2020, with a total portfolio of around 12,000 hotel rooms under 12 different local and global hotel brands, including Marriott, Hilton, Sheraton, Westin, Okura and Maxims. To date, Tan’s group has built a total of 1,900 hotel rooms in Ortigas, Eastwood City, Newport City and Boracay.

“To meet our 2020 goal, we have set an aggressive expansion plan to build 10,000 new hotel rooms across our developments. This will include 2,000 rooms in Newport City; 2,800 in Resorts World Bayshore City; 1,900 in Boracay Newcoast; 2,700 in The Mactan Newtown in Cebu; around 470 rooms in Iloilo, and 220 rooms in Tagaytay and other parts of Metro Manila,” announced Tan at during his speck, adding that he is both proud and fortunate to be an integral part of the industry.

“Transforming land also means changing lives, creating jobs and building the nation. For me, this award is both a reminder and an inspiration to keep looking for opportunities to do more.”