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Thursday, January 22, 2004
Hotels, restaurants, benefit from Sinulog
By Jessica B. Natad
with Cherry T. Lim
THE Sinulog celebration perked up the food, hotel and transport businesses in Cebu.
But for some of the traders joining the Sinulog street fair along Osmeña Blvd., business this year has not been as good as in the previous years.
Hotel, Resort and Restaurant Association of Cebu president Jessica Avila said Cebu’s annual Sinulog festival always benefited many sectors of Cebu’s economy including the hotels and restaurants.
“The business brought by Sinulog has been consistently good,” she told Sun.Star.
Her restaurant, Chikaan, had to refuse some customers last Saturday and Sunday because it was already serving more than it could handle.
Century Plaza Hotel, which Avila also owns, also enjoyed high occupancy during the Sinulog week, and was fully occupied during the weekend.
Cebu City Marriott Hotel public relations assistant Dolly Belo said the occupancy rate of Marriott, which has 303 rooms, ran close to 100 percent from Monday to Friday and 100 percent last Saturday.
Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino was fully booked for the Sinulog week since last November, Waterfront Philippines Inc. president Patrick Gregorio said.
Cebu Bankers Club president Jose Camello said even the small hotels were full, with auditors of the bank having difficulty booking rooms during the week.
In the transportation sector, Angela Climaco, passage head of shipping company Aboitiz Transport Group Inc., formerly WG&A, said the passenger volume this year was greater than the passenger volume last year.
January, the Sinulog month, is a peak month. Peak months are periods when vessel occupancy increases to 80 to 100 percent from the 40 percent average occupancy rate of the lean months, Climaco said.
Momentum
In the retail sector, SM City Cebu regional marketing and communications head Hester Jane Amigo said Cebu’s Sinulog festival had allowed the mall to extend December’s high retail momentum to January.
In general, Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Carlos Co observed, “there were a lot more people (in Cebu) on Saturday and Sunday,” including local tourists and foreigners.
“Even the procession was so tight. It was not that way before,” Co said of the Saturday event that drew nearly a million people.
But for the traders at the ongoing Sinulog trade fair, business has been slow.
Target unmet
Lisa dela Peña said GIS Clothing had not yet met its sales target for this year’s fair. “Mingaw man karon. Only a few people are coming to see and buy our products.”
Jamil, who is selling batik clothing from Zamboanga, said his sales since the first week of December had not reached P10,000.
“Last year, we earned P20,000 during the Sinulog day itself. But this year, we’ve been here for almost one month and we have not reached P10,000 yet,” he said.
Zamboanga trader Arnel Sultan said his sales this year were about the same as last year’s.
(January 22, 2004 issue)
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