BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
ILOILO City – To offset the losses caused by China’s ban on travel to the Philippines and keep business going in Boracay Island, the Department of Tourism (DOT) Region 6 has adopted some short-term solutions.
Among others, Regional Director Helen Catalbas suggested discounted room rates for Filipino tourists.
“There are 100 million Filipinos, and if we can only get one-half percent of them to travel to Boracay, our empty rooms vacated by the Chinese tourists will soon be full again,” Catalbas wrote Aklan lone district congressman Teodorico Haresco, Gov. Florencio Miraflores, Malay mayor John Yap and to all provincial and municipal officials in Aklan.
She added that DOT-6 will advertise through mass media, particularly those in Metro Manila and in other places, Western Visayas as a domestic tourist market.
“While our national government officials are working hard to address international issues affecting the tourism industry of the Philippines, we have to do something on the ground,” she said.
The regional director added that tourist transportations (land, air and sea) should also offer discounted fares to Boracay to attract more Filipinos to come.
She also encouraged local government units and tourism offices to post beautiful pictures of Boracay Island together with the details of the discounted transportation and room rates on Facebook and other social media.
“The sooner we do these, the sooner we will be able to arrest cancellations and keep business going despite the unfortunate happening which we hope will end soon,” said Catalbas.
Massive cancellations of room bookings in Boracay and cancellations of international flights from China to Kalibo were noted since Sept. 13, a day after China announced its travel ban following the kidnapping of a Chinese teenager in Zamboanga Sibugay.
So far, Boracay reservations covering over 20,000 “room nights” were cancelled.
By DOT estimate, one tourist arrival is equivalent to three “room nights,” said Catalbas.
The initial cancellations cost between P150 million to P165 million in losses, said Catalbas.
Next to South Korea, China has the most number of tourists in Western Visayas, she revealed.
As of July 9, 2014, Chinese tourist arrivals reached 110,380.
The cancelled reservations in Boracay, one of the world’s best island resorts, covered the period from Sept. 13, 2014 to March 2015./PN
