By
Dexter A. See
BAGUIO CITY– The Hotel and Restaurant
Association of Baguio (HRAB) and the Baguio Tourism Council (BTC) questioned
the methodology being used by the Department of Tourism (DOT) in the gathering
of data on tourist arrivals considering that the figures being released by the
agency is reportedly contrary to the real situation and experience of the
tourism-related establishments in the Summer Capital.
Anthony de Leon, HRAB president and general
manager of the Baguio Country Club (BCC), said the report that the city’s
tourist arrivals for the first semester of this year dropped by 30 percent
considering that there were only 300,000 tourists who actually arrived in the
city is totally wrong because it failed to consider tourists who arrived in the
city for the 18th staging of the Baguio flower festival, the Philippine
Military Academy (PMA) alumni homecoming and graduation, the Holy Week break
and during the summer months.
“We are not aware of the reason behind the
releasing of the report on tourist arrivals in the city which is questionable
because it is in direct contrast to the real situation in the industry, ”de
Leon stressed, citing that if the untrue report is geared towards discrediting
the present administration of the city, the same will not work because Baguio
has its natural pull of tourists which is not present in other tourist
destinations in the country.
He pointed out the DOT must formulate a
methodology that will encompass visitors flocking to the city who opt to stay
in hotels, transient houses or even in their homes because some of the tourists
have their own homes in the different parts of the city.
According to him, data gathering must not
only be confined to the establishments accredited by the DOT but also the
numerous transient houses that are not actually registered as well as the
census of visitors who have existing homes in the different barangays.
While it is true that there are also
establishments that do not report actual occupancy, de Leon, who is also the
BTC chairman, said efforts are being done to police their own ranks but there
are some establishment owners who refuse to submit true reports primarily
because of fear of the imposition of taxes by the Bureau of Internal Revenue
(BIR).
Considering that June to September are lean
months for the tourism industry in the city, he claimed the private sector is
doing its best to ensure that the city will sustain its identity as an
all-weather destination for local hoteliers to make business although they are
taking advantage of the lean season to allow their employees to undergo
trainings that will contribute in advancing their respective career in the
industry.
HRAB has been a partner of the city
government in the implementation of various crowd drawing events that sustain
the influx of foreign and domestic tourists to the city.
De Leon strongly denounced the continuous
smear campaign being done by individuals and groups who want to ruin the good
standing of Baguio city in the worldwide tourism industry, saying that no amont
of bad publicity could affect the gains in the local tourism industry because
of the good working relationship among all sectors of the Baguio community in
order to uplift its standing among the country’s top tourist destination.
Earlier, the Cordillera office of the
National Economic Development Authority (NEDA-CAR) reported that Baguio City is
ranked sixth among the top ten tourist destinations in the country. -- Dexter A. See
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