CEBU, Philippines – Members of Cebu Alliance of Tour Operations Specialists (CATOS) are now servicing at least 1,400 bookings diverted from Boracay for the months of April and May.
About 800 or more tourists whose bookings are still being negotiated with travel operators and hotels from their cancelled bookings in Boracay, reported CATOS president Alice Queblatin in a press conference yesterday.
While Cebu is also flocked by groups of Chinese tourists overtaking the position of Japan as the second largest foreign market for Central Visayas (next to Korean), additional tourists diverted from cancelled Boracay bookings, is a welcome development.
In fact, this is the time that Cebu can showcase its best and it can even surpass what Boracay has to offer, added Queblatin.
The activities in Boracay can be done in Cebu, Queblatin said, maybe a little bit different from Boracay "but just as interesting."
Boracay, known for its vibrant beach parties and colorful night life, can be matched also by Cebu with its equally exciting night life.
In fact, there are activities that Cebu and other provinces in the region can offer that are not in Boracay.
"We are trying to do everything to replicate or match, if not even surpass what Boracay can offer," Queblatin said.
On the accommodation aspect, Hotel, Resorts and Restaurant Association of Cebu (HRRAC) president Carlo B. Suarez, Cebu and other parts of the region can well accommodate Boracay’s diverted bookings, although the hospitality sector is already running at high level of 75 percent to 80 percent occupancy rate.
These bookings being re-directed to Cebu after the government issued a temporary closure of Boracay Island starting April 26 until October 2018, are mostly group tours from European countries like Spain, Portugal, and other nationalities.
"We are in the good place now," Queblatin said although she admitted that Cebu and other parts of the region are facing challenges such as expanding offers to match of that of what Boracay had, or even surpass it.
In Cebu, Queblatin said tour specialists are upgrading their activities and offers to gain more interest from tourists —making them stay longer than the usual two or three days.
Cebu and Bohol are now two of the popular destinations to host the diverted tourists from Boracay, although others also are given options to other provinces within the region.
This 1,400 recorded bookings are re-directed to Cebu are travel arrangements booked via travel agencies handling Boracay tours, this does not include however the F.I.Ts (Free Independent Travelers).
Rates of hotels and resorts in this heightened peak season, Suarez clarified is an individual business decision between clients and hotel/resort operators.
Central Visayas accommodation portfolio totaled to 34, 979 rooms as of 2017.
Bulk of this accommodation facilities are in Cebu and Bohol, said DOT-7 regional director Shalimar H. Tamano.
Accommodating the tourists who are scheduled to spend their vacations in Boracay from last of April to October can be accommodated by Cebu and other parts of the Central Visayas region, the stakeholders assured.
"Everybody is helping. We have enough rooms," Queblatin added. (With Mary Mel V. Coma and Rejena M Sevilla/Palompon Institute of Technology interns)