Tourism spurs resto growth

• Source:http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/business/2016/06/21/tourism-spurs-resto-growth-480628
• Wednesday, June 22, 2016

By Katlene O. Cacho

CEBU’s booming tourism industry has spurred growth in the food and dining sector, allowing entrepreneurs to expand their chain of restaurants.

Among them is restaurateur Ma. Ligaya Machida, who opened over the weekend her seventh branch of Nonki Japanese Restaurant in JPark Island Resort and Waterpark Cebu, two years since her last Nonki expansion.

The latest branch is a 300-square-meter restaurant that has a seating capacity of 128 persons. Unlike her other Nonki branches in Cebu and Mactan, this one already has a captive market, being located inside the resort facility.

“Tourism represents a unique opportunity, especially in the food business,” said Machida, noting that other foreign nationalities like Koreans and even the locals frequent her restaurants.

However, Machida is all the more confident her food business will continue to take off, following the continued influx of Japanese tourists to Cebu, which is now becoming a more stable tourism source market for the region.

“We decided to expand the chain because of the increasing Japanese arrivals to Cebu. Cebu now has more direct flights to Japan. The Japanese market is coming back,” she said.

Japan’s increased flights from Cebu commenced on the last quarter of 2015, boosting arrivals of Japanese travelers, the Department of Tourism said. The second top source market grew by 25.91 percent or 312,491 arrivals last year.

The Nonki chain has been operating for more than 10 years in the food and dining industry. The company extended its reach to Davao City, the first outside Visayas.

Nonki’s other outlets are located on AS Fortuna St., SM City Cebu, Mactan, Banawa, and JCentre Mall.