The Philippine Hotel Owners Association (PHOA) leveraged its Annual General Membership Meeting (AGMM) 2026 at the Makati Diamond to unveil that Ms. Samantha (VP of Hospitality at AppleOne Group) has been appointed chairperson for Cebu Hotel Connect 2026 PHOA’s inaugural regional event focused on the Cebu hotel market. Atlantis Asia was among attendees who took part in the announcement at the event.

Cebu Hotel Connect, which will be held at the Fairfield by Marriott, Cebu Business Park, September 24–25, 2026, will have Manalastas’ framing of the event at the Makati event provide an indication of what to expect from it. Her analysis of the Cebu situation was straightforward: that the city has emerged as a real hub for growth and investment, and that the industry needs an event built around that competitive on a global level but yet rooted in what makes the local market unique.

The program that has been developed around this premise includes four themes: investments in mixed-use developments and public-private partnerships; connectivity through air links and logistics as Cebu positions as a gateway; use of artificial intelligence in next-gen technology to revamp day-to-day hotel operations; and training to keep hotel staffing up to date with what is coming next. From the broad capital questions to the more practical “how do we actually run a hotel better”, it covers a lot of ground.

Where Atlantis Asia fits in

Having someone from Atlantis Asia at the AGMM fits with the company’s recent focus on connectivity and AI-driven operations, which are precisely the areas Cebu Hotel Connect is built around.

A few things Atlantis Systems Technologies Filipinas Corp. has recently shipped provide an illustration:

• Opening a new distribution channel through Klook, which is integrated directly with the Atlantis Channel Manager, so that hotels that use it can list on Klook without having to have a separate system, where inventory and bookings still pass through the same Atlantis channel.
• A portion of their hospitality suite landed on Oracle Cloud Marketplace, connecting through Oracle OPERA Cloud via Oracle’s Hospitality Integration Platform (OHIP). This connects things such as web check-in, loyalty rewards, the reservation system, and channel distribution into Oracle’s infrastructure.

If you are interested in activating these integrations or would like to learn more about how it can benefit your property, the Atlantis Asia team is ready to assist you every step of the way.