The Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) of the Philippine Department of Tourism (DoT) has reopened 50-year Mount Data Hotel in Bauko, Mountain Province to help jumpstart sustainable tourism and ease the accommodation shortage in the Cordillera Administrative Region.
A pit stop for tourists going to and from Baguio City, Sagada, Banaue, and UNESCO World Heritage-listed Cordillera rice terraces, the iconic hotel has been spruced up through a 40 million pesos (US$754,091) renovation project during the pandemic and will be included in DoT’s marketing efforts.
At 2,195m above sea level boasting chilly weather all year round and set amid a 7.7-hectare ground of lush pine trees and vegetation, Mount Data Hotel has 22 spacious rooms with veranda; two dorms each with a 10-pax capacity; two conference rooms; a restaurant; a coffee shop and bar; and sun terrace.
A reopening introductory rate is pegged at US$75.
Jetro Nicolas Lozada, TIEZA assistant chief operating officer, said the next phase of the hotel’s development will be to build facilities and introduce activities for families and business events, including villas, a convention centre, playgrounds, and hiking trails.
Lozada also said that within Bauko are several attractions which can be developed for tourism, including strawberry and other farms, caves as well as the biodiversity of the protected Mount Data National Park.
Mount Data Hotel was built by TIEZA to encourage tourism, and became part of Philippine history when it hosted the September 1986 Mount Data peace accord between then president Corazon Aquino and the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army that led to the creation of the Cordillera Administrative Region.
