Hong Kong tourists aren’t the only ones avoiding the Philippines after Monday’s bus hostage crisis. Tourists from mainland China and Taiwan have also cancelled plans to travel here. Cebu tour operators and hotels in Cebu have reported cancellations of chartered flights from China and bookings from Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China. A leisure company that offers wholesale tour packages with hotel networks in China has already suffered 30 percent to 40 percent cancellations in bookings for their 160-seat chartered flights from China to Cebu via China Eastern Airlines. Allan Dino, senior vice president for administration, marketing and operations of the Dong Fang Group of Companies (Philippines), told Cebu Daily News the first cancelled flight was on Aug. 25. China Eastern flies tourists to Cebu every five days. “That's only two days after the hostage taking and there was another cancellation in our August 29 flight and the rest of our September flights are all on hold,” Dino said. Dino said they had expected a lot of Chinese tourists in October due to the China National Holiday from Oct. 1 to 6. “We are still trying to talk to the travel agencies. It's really devastating. We've been trying to promote the chartered flights and since we started it in June this year I could say the acceptance that we got from our Chinese tourists has increased and then abruptly decreased after the incident,” Dino said. He said all their efforts since they set up office in the country in 2008 have gone to waste. Dino said that to avoid more damage, the government should apologize and then launch a massive campaign in China and Hong Kong to restore their confidence and encourage them to come to the Philippines again. “A way to appease them is to offer cheaper cost of travel. The government should see to it that they will make them understand that what happened is just an isolated case,” Dino said. In Lapu-Lapu City, Hembler Mendoza, general manager of Waterfront Hotel -Mactan, said that bookings for 73 rooms have been cancelled. Tour operators from Hong Kong scrapped reservations for 20 rooms. Taiwan cancelled 40 rooms while another 40 room reserved for tourists from China were likewise cancelled. Mendoza said it would cost the hotel about P100,000 – P200,000 in losses a month. He also expects the travel ban to affect the hotel’s casino operations. “We have casino junkets. It’s not the rooms ang maapektohan, ang casino business jud pud maapectohan,” Mendoza said. But he expects operations to normalize in one to two months. While some bookings from Asians were cancelled, they haven’t received cancellations from other countries so far. Chinese tourists are Waterfront’s top 10 clients while in Shangrilla, Mactan Resort and Spa they’re in the top 5. Joachim Schutte, general manager of Shangrilla, admitted losing bookings for 200 rooms from Hongkong but European tourists are still coming to the country. He did not give any figures on their estimated losses monthly as a result of the travel ban. Imperial Hotel general manager, Edgardo Tongco said we have to move on like what happened to the tourism in Thailand when a tsunami hit it a couple of years ago. Mayor Paz Radaza said they would promote local tourism and offer promotion packages with the help domestic airlines and hotels. “We are going to have promotion for domestic and local tourists. This will more or less sell tourism here,” Radaza said. Cebu Pacific said that so far they have received rebooking requests for less than 5 percent of their total daily passengers carried on their Hong Kong flights since Monday’s hostage-taking incident. Candice Iyog, CEB VP for Marketing and Distribution, said they would not impose any penalties on customers who will rebook their flights. “Cebu Pacific Air (CEB) will do its best to accommodate rebooking requests to help all passengers. Passengers scheduled to travel from August 25 to 31, 2010 from Hong Kong to the Philippines may rebook their flights or store their travel credits without penalties,” Iyog said. As this developed, Department of Tourism region 7 officer-in-charge Rowena Lu Y. Montecillo announced the holding of an offertory Mass for victims of the hostage tragedy on Aug. 29 at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral as a gesture of sympathy and condolence to the bereaved families. “The mass will be held at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and will be officiated by Msgr. Carlito V. Puno and Msgr. Roberto F. Alesna,” Montecillo said. Montecillo said members of Cebu travel and trade industry would be attending and is inviting everyone to also join them.Read More Aviation News http://globalnation.inquirer.net/
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