Cebu, Boracay see booming holiday traffic
There might be a looming economic crisis but it was business as usual for tourism-related businesses and the retail industry in the Philippines as people spent the holidays shopping and taking beaks at local hotels and resorts.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer said that in Cebu and Boracay, hotels and resorts enjoyed very high occupancy rates, with some fully booked for the duration of the holidays.
Marco Protacio, President of Hotels Resorts Restaurants Association in Cebu (HRRAC), was quoted saying that the recent long holidays have had a major economic impact on tourism-related businesses.
Resorts in Lapu-Lapu City, such as the Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort and Spa, the Plantation Bay Resort and Marigondon Blue Water Beach Resort, reported high occupancy rates with some fully booked until early 2009. Both Shangri-La’s Mactan and Plantation Bay said they had been fully booked since a few days before Christmas until early January 2009.
Resorts and hotels in Boracay also reported a boost in occupancy rates with most reporting they were fully booked.
A chartered plane from Kamchatsky in Russia with 130 tourists arrived in Boracay Island, according to Edwin Trompeta, Department of Tourism (DOT) Regional Director for Western Visayas.
The report quoted Trompeta as saying that more Russian tourists were expected to arrive in Boracay and Cebu this week.
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