NASUGBO, BATANGAS – SM Hotels and Conventions Corporation is set to open two convention centers in key cities until 2013 amid anticipated robust growth of the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) industry.

Christina Bautista, SM Hotels and Convention vice president, said during a briefing over the weekend that the new convention centers would be located in Davao and in Taguig.

According to Bautista, they will be launching this year its SMX Davao, which is being built inside the SM Lanang Premier Mall.

To support the Davao SMX, Baustista said the company has also partnered with the Park Inn hotel, the very first hotel by Radisson in the Asia-Pacific region that will carry the brand name. Park Inn by Radisson is one of the hotel brands under Carlson and is the largest mid-market brand for hotels under development in Europe.

Construction of the hotel has started in the third quarter of last year and is scheduled to open by next year. The 200-room hotel will be located within the 175,000 square meters mixed-use complex owned and developed by SM shopping mall subsidiary, SM Prime Holdings, Inc.

“Park Inn hotel will be operational within the first semester of next year, before the mining conference starts, which will be held in Davao,” she told reporters.

SMX Davao has 4,000-people capacity for a theater set-up, Bautista added.

Aside from Davao, Bautista said SM Hotels and Conventions is also planning to open an event center next year called the Aura Pavilion, which is being built inside the new mall called Aura Civic Center in Taguig City.

To date, SM Hotels and Conventions, a unit of SM Investments Corporation (SMIC), manages the SMX Convention Center at the Mall of Asia complex, Megatrade Hall in Megamall, and the Cebu Tradehall.

SMIC earlier raised its capital spending by a third for this year from a year ago to R56.8 billion, higher by 32.3 percent compared with the previous R43-billion budget.

Bulk of the capex or P26.9 billion will be earmarked for the property development group, P20.7 billion of which will go to residential arm SM Development Corporation.

Rosaline Qua, SMDC president and chief operating officer, said R16.7 billion will be used to finance the completion of ongoing projects and the construction of another four or five projects, equivalent to about 6,000 units.

Projects lined up for launch in 2012 include an MPlace project in Bicutan, an SM Residences project in Makati and the roll out of an additional tower of Grass Residence in Quezon City.

SM Prime Holdings Incorporated will spend P20.9 billion, P12 billion of which will be allocated for construction of malls in the Philippines and R9 billion for its China expansion. The budget also includes initial spending for big projects in South Road Properties in Cebu and in Taguig.