FEWER tourists are taking flight over Boracay’s white sand strip as a lockdown in China plunged demand for water sports, highlighting how the outbreak of 2019 NOVEL CORONAVIRUS (2019-nCoV) strain scares tourism.
Water sports businesses lost 60 percent of their income since the outbreak began late last year, some losing up to 600 customers per day, said Russell Cruz, president of the Boracay Watersports Association.
Group members plan to lessen working days to cut costs and avoid layoffs, he stressed.
The Philippines on Thursday confirmed its first novel coronavirus case, a Chinese tourist from Wuhan, where the pathogen was believed to have originated. President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday temporarily banned travelers from Hubei province, where Wuhan is located.
“The coronavirus is creating quite a significant impact not only in the Philippines but across ASEAN nations, and we can even say globally,” said Ritchie Tuano, president of the Philippine Travel Agencies Association.
He shared that they are now discussing ways to counter the impact of the cancellation of Chinese tourists. (ABS-CBN News)
