BIZ BUZZ: Pulchra Resort to shut down
After nearly three decades of offering luxury accommodations designed to rival all-villa beach resorts in Langkawi, Bali and Phuket, Japanese-owned Pulchra Resort is bowing out of the Cebu tourism scene at a time when the market is rebounding nicely from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pulchra (“beautiful” in Latin), one of the forerunners of villa tourism in the country when it opened in 1996, will shut down by Feb. 5. “In light of the current state of industrialization in the San Fernando area, where the resort is located, we have realized that it will be difficult to continue providing ‘beauty’ based on our concepts of ‘nature, wellness and simplicity,’ thus arriving [at] this difficult decision,” the management said.
Old-timers recall that when the resort opened in 1996, it pioneered not only an all-villa with private pool but a noTV concept, putting emphasis on the appreciation of nature while on vacation—a bold concept then of being unplugged or “disconnected” that catered to a niche discerning market.
The management supported shoreline conservation and restoration with an in-house artificial reef project, fish feeding, creek maintenance and expansion and mangrove reforestation, among others.
Our sources noted that in the past years, Pulchra was able to coexist and even complement the operations of two cement factories in the vicinity because a 5-kilometer distance had been established from each factory from north to south. The host, Barangay San Isidro, was designated as a tourism area.
“Until just recently after the pandemic, the once-thriving mangrove area and marine sanctuary beside the resort has been issued an ECC (environmental compliance certificate) to be converted into an oil depot,” a well-placed hotel industry source told Biz Buzz. “Beside the once tranquil Spa Villas now have been used as berthing of oil tankers.”
It’s “death to a tourism pioneer for a birth of industrialization,” one Pulchra old-timer lamented.
