More than meets the eye?

SO the iconic Pryce Plaza Hotel in Upper Carmen, Cagayan de Oro City is closing at the end of the year.

Business decision after years of losing, subsidized by its owner Pryce Corporation? Or that the owners just do not anymore find Cagayan de Oro a lucrative and interesting place to invest in?

Could it be politics? Could it be tampo, they felt left out in the overall tourism development or the lack of it in the city? Could be.

Finances should not be a problem with Pryce Corporation, a homegrown company that started with the hotel, industrial gases, real estate to become an emerging big player in the country’s liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) industry.

After years of rehabilitation, Pryce Corp. was declared out of the red last year and has since then solidly performed in the Philippine Stock Exchange –largely due to the solid performance of its subsidiary Pryce Gases Inc. which is into industrial and medical gases. and LPG business. Pryce Gases, according to reports, is now the 3rd biggest player in the LPG business, behind multi national giants Petron Gasul and Shell Solane.

It has invested heavily in the LPG industry with its new LPG terminal in Pangasinan, now one of the biggest in the country after Shell folded up its LPG facility in Batangas three years ago.

Why would the owners–the Escano family from Leyte, who migrated to Cagayan de Oro to invest in Pryce Plaza Hotel, formerly Alta Tierra and industrial gases in Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental–close what used to be its flagship business?

If it can invest billions in its LPG business, why would it suddenly scrimp on making the Pryce Plaza Hotel competitive once gain at a time when new high end hotels are booming in traffic-plagued downtown. In the bigger picture, Pryce Plaza may not even be a percent of the current Pryce Corp. conglomerate.

The owners are friends with the current occupant of City Hall. In fact, during his stint as governor, the hotel was his second home. There are ties that bind the Escano family to the city. It was here they built the foundation of their fortune.

Maybe a little hilot, lambing from tourism stakeholders, including the city hall, can convince the Escanos to continue operating Pryce Plaze, upgrade the hotel and even fill up the convention center needs of the city.

But by the looks of it, other than sentimentalism, no clear move has been done to keep the owners from closing the hotel. It may take more than romantics to convince the owners. They have to be shown that business is still good and the city is still a lucrative place to invest in. More importantly, that they are an important part of the city tourism history and an important cog in the local business community.

City hall may need to act. Its tourism program is going nowhere. It has a tourism council led by a retiree which is actually implementing tourism programs rather than overseeing and providing policy guidelines. The tourism office is a hole in the wall. Many do not even realize it exists. On paper, it is headed by a doll, appointed to head the tourism office as DongkoyEmano exited city hall. She sure looks pretty with those expensive make up and designer dresses and gowns–perhaps thinking she is the tourist spot.

The local government should show real care for stakeholders of the tourism industry. The impending closure of Pryce Plaza Hotel is symptomatic of the sorry state of tourism governance in the city. –Robby Guanzon, robby.guanzon@gmail.com