“Yolanda” affects revenue collection of Fort San Pedro

CEBU, Philippines -  Although not directly hit and damaged by super typhoon Yolanda, the historic Fort San Pedro in Cebu City still felt the impact of the typhoon as it reported loss of revenues due to cancelled tours.

In a report furnished to the Cebu City Council last Wednesday by Fort San Pedro Executive Director Erwin Dela Cerna, he noted the effect of the typhoon plus the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in the 2013 income collection.

"The Income of the Fort San Pedro was greatly affected by the October 15 earthquake and the November 8 super typhoon, in which educational tours, city tours, heritage tours and bookings for events were cancelled," Dela Cerna said.

Based on the report of De la Cerna, the revenue collection in 2013 was down to P9,025,272 million as compared to 2012's P9,121,222 million. But the decline in the revenue collection already started in 2012 since in 2011, the total collection was at P9,591,658 million.

The revenue collection of  Fort San Pedro includes the entrance fee of P30 for adults and P20 for students plus the P6,500 rental as a venue for events.

According to the Tourism Attraction Visitor Record (TAVR), a total of 52,330 tourists visited Fort San Pedro last year wherein 6,091 was recorded on the first quarter (January-March); 17,958 during the second quarter (April-May); 17,552 on the third quarter (July-September) and 10,729 during the fourth quarter (October-December).

The TAVR does not include yet the package and city tours organized by the different Travel Operators in Cebu which caters to tourists from Korea, Japan, China, USA and Europe, and offers educational tours from different schools. The TAVR only notes walk-in guests.

Dela Cerna said though that even if the revenue collection "relatively" decreased, the annual collection of over nine million was still achieved and has been consistent for three years now. — (FREEMAN)