Even the country’s least developed areas are slowly attracting tourists attention that hotel facilities have to be constructed in Nueva Vizcaya and Legazpi City as shown by the recent project approvals of the Board of Investments.

Approved for tax and fiscal incentives are the Highlander Hotel and Resort to be located in barangay Roxas in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya at a cost of P90 million.

In approving the project, the BoI noted that Nueva Vizcaya is one of the country’s least developed areas and is therefore entitled to pioneer incentives, meaning six years of income tax holiday.

The two-storey new hotel, endorsed by the Department of Tourism as standard class hotel, will have 76 rooms and will employ 100 people when it starts commercial operation in January 2010.

Hotel amenities include a fully equipped function rooms, bar and restaurant, swimming pool, and disco and videoke bar.

The hotel will cater to the foreign and local tourists including balikbayans, businessmen and tourists.

Highlander Hotel and Resort is a sole proprietorship of Arlene Tomas Gregorio.

The other approved tourist accommodation facility is the renovation of the 6-storey Hotel St. Ellis with a project cost of P224.91 million in Legazpi Port Area in Legazpi City.

The BoI has granted non-pioneer status to the project entitling it to a four year income tax holiday. The Department of Tourism has endorsed the project as a tourist inn.

The renovation consists of re-sizing and refurbishing of the rooms and remodeling.

The project will augment the number of Legazpi City’s existing lodging facilities complement to accommodate the projected increase in tourist arrivals.

The hotel is going to employ 45 workers when it resumes commercial operation in December this year.