DOT sees $70-million losses

MANILA, Philippines – The adverse effects of the Quirino Grandstand hostage-taking incident last Aug. 23 that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead are far from over and, in fact, may lead to around $70 million in losses for the tourism industry, Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said yesterday.

“The tension is still there and may still escalate. It would probably take three months before it could finally dissipate and enable the industry to recover,” Lim said on the sidelines of the requiem Mass for the victims of the hostage taking incident.

Lim said the Quirino Grandstand siege may scare away about 100,000 tourists from Hong Kong and China and thus cut down tourism industry earnings by some $70 million.

“If each tourist spends about $750 in their visit here, that could be some $70 million possible losses for our tourism industry,” Lim pointed out.

Before the hostage-taking incident, the Department of Tourism posted a three percent growth in the number of international arrivals.

But after the hostage crisis, Lim said the number of foreign travelers, particularly those from Hong Kong and China, would definitely suffer a slump and affect the country’s target tourist arrivals.

According to Lim, tourists from Hong Kong and mainland China comprise about nine percent of the annual international arrivals in the country and could likely pull down the annual number of foreign visitors to the country by about five percent.

He said that a week after the hostage drama, the people of Hong Kong still think that the Philippine government has not taken sufficient action to resolve some conflicts and concerns.

They think it’s not enough because they are awaiting the outcome of the investigation and would want heads to roll. There is also the issue of compensation for the victims, so we don’t expect this tension to dissipate immediately,” he said.

But the DOT chief assured tourists that the Philippine government is taking appropriate measures to protect them.

He said the DOT is also working for the establishment of a 24-hour court justice system that would enable foreign tourists to file appropriate charges and still leave the Philippines immediately after encountering problems in the country.

Lim ruled out the deployment of additional armed and uniformed policemen in various tourist destinations for it could only scare away travelers.

To prevent a massive drop in tourist arrivals, the DOT is intensifying marketing missions in foreign countries and exerting all efforts to restore relations with China and Hong Kong.

Lim said the DOT would be seeking the help of travel and tour agencies in negotiating with their foreign counterparts and in luring back tourists from China and Hong Kong.

Arrivals to be monitored

An official of the Bureau of Immigration (BI), meanwhile, said yesterday they would be closely monitoring if the hostage incident last week would have a long-term effect on the number of Hong Kong residents traveling to the Philippines.

“Immediately after the incident, there were people who cancelled their flights to the Philippines. But it has only been a week since the hostage taking, so what we need to observe is the long-term effect,” said BI Airport Operations chief Arvin Santos.

He also said that the “ber” months are not considered peak months for Hong Kong nationals who visit the Philippines.

Data from the BI also showed that there were a total of 21,330 Hong Kong nationals who came to the Philippines in 2009, with the biggest arrivals in January, April and July. 

But for the first eight months of this year alone, there had been 33,165 travelers from Hong Kong, BI records also showed.

Drop in revenues

Airline and immigration sources said the Ninoy Aquino International Airport terminals have suffered a drastic drop in revenues due to the limited arrivals of Chinese passengers from the Asian region.

But NAIA authorities could not give an exact figure of the revenue loss because this is still being computed at the Finance Department, said Felix Manalo Jr. of the NAIA 1 Terminal Fee Division.

The NAIA is said to collect around P29 million in terminal fees every month. - With Evelyn Macairan, Rudy Santos