Lapu hotels, resorts to give 50% discount

CEBU, Philippines - Majority of resorts and hotels in Lapu-Lapu City have announced that from September 20 to December 20, 2010, they will offer a 50 percent discount to domestic tourists as part of the massive campaign to bring in customers to Lapu-Lapu City following the tourism slump due to the hostage rescue fiasco in Metro Manila.

The campaign called “Lapu-Lapu City - The Island Experience” aims to turn a crisis into an opportunity as the city of Lapu-Lapu develops its own tourism brand, said Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza.

Aside from beach resorts and hotels, Mayor Radaza also announced that they talked with other tourism players such as dive shops, restaurants, boat operators, souvenir shops for them to join the program by providing big discounts to domestic tourists.

Resorts and hotel operators in Lapu-Lapu City admitted that the botched hostage rescue last month resulted in booking cancellations, affecting tourism activity in Lapu-Lapu City.

Visitors from Hong Kong and China rank fourth in foreign arrivals.

Last Friday, the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office and the Lapu-Lapu City Special Weapons and Tactics Team, through the request of the mayor, conducted a simulated hostage rescue drill in the presence of the general managers from the various hotels and resorts in the city.

After the demonstration, Radaza met with the general managers to unveil to them the proposed action plan to cushion the impact of the tourism crisis, which is the Lapu-Lapu City Island Experience.

The objective of the meeting was to get the commitment of the tourism stakeholders on the initiative of the city to launch a domestic tourism program. Cebu Pacific airlines committed to bring media to Lapu-Lapu while the resorts also agreed to host the media during the promotional phase of the program.

It was agreed that a position paper on the program will be submitted to the tourism players.

During the meeting, Island Souvenirs said they will come up with several t-shirt designs for approval by the city. It will highlight the promotional program.

It also offered to put up tarpaulins around the city particularly in the tourism belt to promote the program.

Island Banca offered a special tour for media who will be invited to Cebu. (THE FREEMAN)