Travel, food, health, fashion, beauty, and more Lifestyle stories you love.
Travel, food, health, fashion, beauty, and more Lifestyle stories you love.
As a young CEO in the hospitality sector, Hope Uy is putting focus on service, sustainability, and leading the way in changing the face of tourism in Bohol
At 34 years old, Hope Uy is already a chief executive officer (CEO), running the hospitality arm of their family business. She is a member of one of Bohol’s famous families that has businesses all over the island. But despite having a prominent name, known in many circles in and out of Bohol, Hope is new to all the media attention she is getting recently.
In January 2023, Panglao Bay Premiere Parks & Resorts Corp. (PBPPRC) launched its biggest development project called Panglao Shores, a mixed-use estate that features luxury hotels and resorts, residential buildings, a commercial district, a medical facility, and a convention center, all situated in a 50-hectare property in Panglao Island. It’s one of the biggest tourism projects in the country.
Hope had to face the media during the launch, presenting the project in front of a small crowd and sitting down for one-on-one interviews with the local, national, and international press. Her publicist admitted that the young CEO is new to all of this and was in fact anxious at that time of the launch. Her family is known for keeping a low profile. Even the journalists from Cebu were surprised to hear Hope granting interviews.
The launch was held in the ballroom of South Palms Resort, the company’s sprawling flagship property. During the event, Hope introduced the new development like a pro and with a beaming smile.
“It all started as a family dream. My dad would always take us to this beautiful beach here in Panglao. Until we had the opportunity to develop it on our own. It has been 10 years now. [And then] five years ago, we planned what would be our Bohol development [project] for this island,” she shared to the audience during the event.
“When we were little, if it's summer vacation we have to work in our stores. So literally [I did] everything. I was repacking candies, I was a bagger. My dad even exposed us to working in Jollibee because we have a Jollibee franchise,” she shared.
She actually looked forward to these work visits because she would do it with her siblings.
“Growing up has always been helping out in the family business but the good thing is it was together with my siblings. So you still look forward to going because you're with this group of people you know,” she said.
After being exposed to various types of businesses that she would potentially take interest in, she actually had her sights on hospitality. It was her family’s trip to a beach resort in Panglao that really opened her eyes to the resort business.
“I remember when I was a kid, my family brought us here (then Bohol Beach Club), my dad specifically brought us here because they're very close friends with the previous owner and I was so in awe with the hotel rooms. The shampoo [and] conditioner bottles were like collectibles [for me]. So it has always been an obsession to collect these things because it's from a hotel,” Hope recalled.
She took up and finished Hospitality Management at University of San Carlos in Cebu. She then flew to South Carolina in the United States to work in a resort. She worked as a front desk officer for a 500-room hotel. She said she learned a lot from this experience that she brought back home.
When Hope took over as CEO, she became a hands-on leader. She instituted changes like putting focus on the comfort of guests by making sure the design of the resort works well with visitors.
“Our vision has always been creating a better experience for our guests. Although I did not take [in] design school, I am obsessed with design so the comfort of our guests is always a priority, like where we place furniture around this property,” she explained.
South Palms is known for its sprawling space, which worked perfectly during the strict pandemic lockdowns. Hope shared that they had to close down the resort for a time but they had to think of ways to market the property to visitors when borders started to open up again.
“When we reopened we had to do a lot of strategies and a lot of marketing. We computed how much space can one individual have in this property. So there was this marketing approach of how you can serve the guest while having their own space. So we created the ‘Your space begins here’ tagline. That approach actually attracted a lot of tourists coming in. They don’t need to be in close proximity to each other and they loved it. But of course even if you do that, they still look for a massage,” she quipped.
South Palms Panglao
South Farm
During the pandemic, she made sure to take care of her staff as well. Not a single one of the hotel’s staff was laid off but instead some were transferred to South Farm, a leisure farm that grows produce and livestock to provide their resorts’ kitchen needs. It also became a destination for Boholanos where they enjoy a beautifully designed farm with fish ponds, an art village, and its own cafe.
According to Hope, working as a young CEO is not an easy task. She has to work twice as hard for people to listen.
“Thank you for saying that I'm very young,” she enthused. “You have to work to inspire other people to believe in you. So it's like working twice as hard to inspire the older and the same generation as me. But I think the most important part is really surrounding yourself with the best people and just respecting and helping out each other. The advantage really is this dream coming true and creating these relationships at the early stage,” she said.
“The great part about this industry is, there’s not a day that's the same, every day is different. You know, as a hospitality person you crave doing service for people. I believe my team can speak for themselves as well that we always look forward to serving other people, not just guests, but also our colleagues. So that's service for us,” she added.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic happened, Hope’s company already had expansion plans. In 2022, those plans were put in motion and the hospitality company started phase one of its big project.
Panglao Shores is actually one of the flagship projects being supported by the Tourism Infrastructure & Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA). The 50-hectare property would change the face of tourism in Bohol. And with the new Bohol-Panglao International Airport now open, the province is expecting more tourists to visit one of the country’s top destinations.
Aside from the modern masterplan, what makes this project different is its focus on sustainability. The company tapped London-based sustainability expert, XCO2, and Singapore-based master planner SCSY to help with the development.
“It was an epiphany for us, a real moment of awakening. The realization was that there was an opportunity to create a generational product, inspired by Bohol, on a scale that would enable a fully-integrated community to flourish with sustainability at its core,” Hope said in a press release sent to the media for the launch of Panglao Shores.
The whole development features six hotels including a new 188-room South Palms Resort, 37,000 square meters of retail and commercial space, 1,000 residential units, a medical facility, and a convention center.
“The future of tourism in general, is tourists will be more conscious of where to travel and on how to travel. This would be a generation of travel conscious people so they will be sensitive to how they will still contribute to the environment while traveling,” she said
And when asked if the company has plans on expanding outside Bohol, Hope said, “There’s still so much to do in Bohol so let's do Bohol first.”
