Flight cancellations increasing

MANILA – Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) began to feel the backlash of the tragic hostage-taking at the capital last Monday as more than 500 tourists from Hong Kong and mainland China cancelled their online bookings.

"PAL is beginning to feel the initial impact of a Hong Kong government advisory warning its residents from traveling to the Philippines," said PAL president Jaime Bautista.

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As of Wednesday, PAL said its Hong Kong branch reported at least 558 cancelled Manila-bound bookings, consisting of tourists from Hong Kong, Beijing, Xiamen and other points in China.

A tourism official expects a decline in tourist arrivals in usual tourism gateways such as Laoag International Airport and Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark in Pampanga province due to a travel ban issued by the Hong Kong government early this week.

A slight decline in arrivals of tourists from Hong Kong has already been felt, especially in northern Mindanao, ahead of Monday's stand-off, officials said.

On Monday, Rolando Mendoza, a Manila policeman who had been dismissed, hijacked a tourist bus in front of the Quirino Grandstand in Manila. Nine hostages were released. He opened fire on the 15 remaining hostages, mostly Hong Kong tourists, after government failed to give his demand to be reinstated. Eight people were killed before a police sniper took out the gunman.

Back home, PAL said two Hong Kong and Macau-bound Filipino tourists opted to change their destination in view of the current situation.

But PAL said it would continue to mount five daily flights to and from Hong Kong, citing that it is yet too early to quantify the financial impact of the negative advisories against the Philippines.

"We’re closely monitoring the situation, and will decide soon whether we will maintain or reduce flights. We share the grief and understand the Hong Kong people’s wrath. We are optimistic that fears of travelling to the Philippines will be temporary," said Bautista.

He also admitted that the travel advisories to the Philippines are "not helping the flag carrier, which is currently struggling financially and grappling with restive workers."

Earlier, Cebu Pacific Airline said it has received rebooking requests for less than five percent of their total daily passengers bound for the Chinese territory.

The daylong standoff between the bus hijacker and police, aired live on television, stunned residents in Hong Kong, a safe, affluent city that rarely sees violent crimes. Locals expressed outrage at the Philippine government's handling of the situation, with Internet users heaping verbal abuse on Philippine President Benigno Aquino III.

"We understand that Philippine officials in Hong Kong assured the citizens there that the Philippines is still a safe and viable tourist destination. We are looking forward for the lifting of the travel restrictions," Bautista added.

Purificacion Molintas, tourism director in Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), said the north Luzon cluster, composed of Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, and Cordillera Administrative Region, has been suffering flight and travel cancellations recently because of the incident.

Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim, on the other hand, gave a self-imposed deadline of recovery within three months, noting that the 3.3 million tourists targeted for this year will not be met due to the incident.

"Tourism makes up six percent of the GDP (gross domestic product). So if we could sustain that figure, we're okay," Lim told reporters at the sidelines of the economic managers’ meeting at the National Economic and Development Authority in Pasig City.

The government reported on Thursday that tourist arrivals in the Philippines grew by 6.2 percent in April compared to the same period in 2009.

Data from the Tourism department showed that from January to May this year, a total of 33,395 Hong Kong tourists visited the Philippines.

Of this number, 13,775 people went to Manila while 11,222 tourists flocked to Cebu.

But according to Ma. Elena O. Manalo, tourism supervisor in Northern Mindanao, Hong Kong visitors in the region have slightly decreased since the first quarter of this year.

She said that from 126 in 2009, it went down to 106 this year, posting negative 16 percent. She did not elaborate on the reason for the decrease.

In Baguio City, local tourism executives were disappointed over the effects of the Manila hostage crisis to local tourism.

Baguio Tourism Council chair Anthony de Leon said he and other tourism stakeholders are concerned about the impact of this incident to the local and national tourism industry.

"We will have to work closely with the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the Tourism Congress to counter the bad publicity and come up with a policy which will not jeopardize tourists in the future," de Leon said.

Concerned with the incident’s impact on the local tourism industry, de Leon said the Tourism Congress expects other foreign countries to follow suit.

"We urge government to put in place crisis public relations management mechanisms precisely because we have not addressed this properly in the past to the detriment of our tourism stakeholders," a statement from the Tourism Congress said.

The Tourism Congress is a 65-member private sector consultative body mandated by Tourism Act of 2009 to assist government in the development, implementation and coordination of Philippine Tourism Policy. 

"Here in the local scene, HRAB (Hotel and Restaurant Association of Baguio) and BCVB (Baguio Convention and Visitors Bureau) will continue to work on activities, which will drive the image of Baguio better to domestic tourists and hopefully foreign visitors as we usually experience visits from them at the last quarter of the year," de Leon added.

Last year, Baguio City was hailed by the DOT as the third top tourist destination in the country based on both domestic and foreign tourists arrivals.

Secretary Lim, meanwhile, said: "We're going to do what we have to do in the first place, which is to promote the country, and we have marketing plans to do it. So we will continue and probably intensify."

President Aquino said at a groundbreaking ceremony in Mandaluyong on Thursday that investor confidence in the Philippines remains high despite the bungled rescue attempt of Hong Kong tourists held hostage by a disgruntled former Manila policeman.

He said the Deutsche Bank officials met with him in Malacañang after the Quirino Grandstand hostage-taking incident to express their collective confidence on the country as an investment venue.

He said bank officials said that "what the country is going through right now is only temporary."

"Our confidence in the Philippines is still complete, in fact we plan to increase our exposure here over three times because we believe that the Philippines is on the path to progress," the President quoted the bank officials as saying.

Aquino added that officials of a multi-national bank based in the United States have already signified their intent to invest in the country.

"By the end of September, we will be going to America and upon our return, I believe that we will be bringing gifts for the Filipino people in the form of additional jobs," the President said. (Virgil Lopez/Loui S. Maliza of Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro/JM Agreda of Sun.Star Baguio/AP/PNA/Sunnex)