Dear Stockholders,
We started 2003 with resolve to face the challenges brought on by unrelenting international crises that contributed to the slow pace of recovery of the tourism and tourism-related services sectors.
Our targets continued to remain modest. We did this with the view in mind that we would take this year to lay the groundwork for greater profitability for us in the next few years.
This report summarizes the year past and management’s response to maintain growth for our company. It also outlines the fundamental infrastructure (in marketing, in total guests relations and in peer development) we set in place that would see fruition in the years ahead. Simply said, our duty to you, fellow shareholders, goes beyond protecting your investment this year. We are committed to ensuring your trust reaps its rewards in the near future.
The year 2003 was marked by a decline in foreign visitor arrival due to the threat of terrorism and the lingering effects of SARS. This decline reflects a similar drop in worldwide tourism. This drove us to aggressively pursue non-traditional markets to increase our visitor share and to give added weight to encourage domestic traffic and bookings in our hotels. The latter goal was given boost by the three-weekend policy pursued by the current administration.
The tasks laid out by this development defined us as a team. And this team spirit is responsible for the moderate successes in our operations.
As the year came to a close, we can report that our company earned revenues amounting to P963 million, a modest growth from that of the previous year. Surprisingly, our non-hotel operations grew by 64%, from P28 million in 2002 to P79 million this year.
Much credit goes to our marketing strategy that is market-determined. In this past year, we aggressively went all out in expanding and consolidating our distribution network, making our presence more pronounced in local and regional trade shows and, not least of all, innovating and implementing new concepts of promotional offers.
The challenges remain. Together with you, management will navigate our company to a position of incontestable strength and market leadership. We remain steadfast in our strategy to go beyond outside our traditional markets and develop new revenue streams.
Congratulations to our team! And, thank you. The future is ours. Let us claim it!
RENATO MAGADIA
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, OPERATIONS
PATRICK C. GREGORIO
PRESIDENT
REXLON T. GATCHALIANN
EVP-HOTEL