Cebu-Caticlan route eyed to boost domestic tourism

The Aboitiz Transport System (ATS), the operator of domestic shipping brand SuperFerry is going to open a Cebu-Caticlan route in the next few months, in its bid to further the domestic tourism growth in country.

ATS assistant vice president for communications John Rojo in an interview said the Cebu-Caticlan route will provide sea transportation options to tourists coming from Cebu or the Southern part of the country who are bound for Boracay.

Rojo said Boracay is undoubtedly one of the robust tourism destinations in the country, and wide transportation options should be provided for the tourists, and SuperFerry is taking its lead.

However, Rojo said he is not privy on the specific date of the opening of the route, but he assures that it would be sometime this year.

"There are a lot of developments in Boracay, the opening of the new Shangri-La Resort, among others. This should be complemented with transportation access especially coming from Cebu," Rojo said.

ATS' SuperFerry brand is not only offering a mere sea transportation accommodation to take passengers to their port of destination, but it is now pushing a vacation type accommodation, which gives passengers a vacation experience on board.

Despite the volatile price of fuel, which put ATS' performance on the red light last year, the company has continuously considered opening routes that have great potential for passenger traffic.

In 2004, ATS contributed P94 million to the AEV, 63 percent lower than in the previous year.

"As you can imagine we have been hit by large increases in fuel price. Added with higher security related expenditures and dry docking costs, and higher steel prices have affected our profitability," said Aboitiz Equity Venture (AEV) president and chief executive officer (CEO) Jon Ramon Aboitiz in an earlier interview.

He said since there is a lag in passing on these costs, the company was forced to absorb these higher costs.

ATS had already integrated its other transport related businesses, which will not only give ATS a larger and more diversified revenue base, but will also allow the company to offer higher value added transport solutions to its customers, further differentiating itself from its competitors.

ATS, which is also the largest operator in domestic passenger shipping business also mentioned to pass on the cost of additional VAT (value added tax) to 12 percent from 10 percent recently implemented by the Arroyo administration.

While ATS is struggling amid the volatile fuel cost, and forced itself to improve its efficiency by acquiring new vessels for cargo operations, it can no longer absorb further cost adjustments, thus passing on the additional VAT requirement to consumers is its last resort.

"Eventually people or consumers will adjust [to probable fare rate increase]," Aboitiz said.