HOTELS IN Tagaytay City, Cavite are expected to reopen today, Friday, after Senator Francis Tolentino was reported to have met their representatives on Thursday.Sources told the BusinessMirror late Thursday, Tolentino met with the Tagaytay Tourism Council and hotel operators in Tagaytay and impressed on them “to open as soon as possible.
“Following this, the Department of Tourism (DOT) issued a statement underscoring its deep concern for the safety and security of both tourism workforce and tourists in Tagaytay, and all affected areas of the Taal Volcano eruption under Alert Level 4.”
The DOT trusts that the concerned agencies will seek guidance from the DOST-Phivolcs to ensure the safety of our tourists and tourism employees.
“The Department calls on all tourism stakeholders in affected areas to strictly heed the advice of agencies handling this natural disaster.”
Earlier, the DOT reported all tourism establishments in Tagaytay City were closed as of Wednesday, following the agency’s directive to cease operations due to the imminent explosive eruption of Taal Volcano.
In a Viber message to the BusinessMirror, Tourism Undersecretary for Tourism Regulation, Coordination and Resource Generation Arturo P. Boncato Jr. said, “All Tagaytay hotels and resorts [are now closed].” These include Anya Resort, Discovery Country Suites, Nurture Wellness Village, One Tagaytay Place, Quest Hotel, Summit Ridge and Taal Vista Hotel, according to a separate report from the Philippine Hotel Owners Association, on its member-hotels in the area.
Citing data from the Municipal Government of Tagaytay, Boncato said the closed tourism establishments include “57 hotels/resorts and 99 pensions and inns.” He explained that Tagaytay is within the 14-kilometer danger zone, which would be immediately affected by any eruption of Taal Volcano.
BusinessMirror estimates indicate that, if closed for just 15 days, these 159 tourism establishments stand to lose at least P8.2 million, based on an average room rate of P3,500 per night.
The danger zone also covers the Batangas towns of Laurel, Agoncillo, Lemery, Taal, Santa Teresita, Cuenca, Mataas Na Kahoy, Balete, Malvar, Talisay and San Nicolas. “These have all been evacuated, including the lakeshore towns,” Boncato stressed, but “most accommodations are in Tagaytay.”
According to the DOT, there were 4.22 million day tourists and 982,120 overnight guests in Tagaytay, alone, in 2018. (See, “Tourism in Tagaytay, Cavite, Batangas uncertain,” in the BusinessMirror, January 14, 2020.)
Boncato said other accommodations out of the danger zone, such as resorts in Nasugbu, for instance, are free to operate, despite the entire province of Batangas now under a state of calamity.
On Wednesday, the governor of Cavite also declared the province under a state of calamity. Tagaytay is a municipality of Cavite.
The DOT on Wednesday “strongly advise[d] all tourism enterprises operating in all affected areas of the Taal Volcano disaster to immediately cease operations in light of the DOST-Phivolcs’s Alert Level 4 warning.” (See, “‘Close down,’ DOT tells tourism establishments in Taal-eruption affected areas,” in the BusinessMirror, January 15, 2020.)
The DOT also reiterated that “travel in other parts of Luzon, and the rest of the country, remains safe and accessible.”
In a separate interview, Ritchie Tuaño, president of the Philippine Travel Agencies Association, said while they “have not received any reports of tour cancellations [to Tagaytay], it is inevitable that tourism will be affected by this natural disaster or calamity. PTAA will do its part, in its own small and humble way, in rebuilding affected tourism areas. We will work with local government units and nongovernment organizations in this effort, with the hope they can recover as quick as possible.”
He disclosed that the PTAA will be hosting business-to-business events involving foreign tour operators from February 2 to 4, during the organization’s Travel Tour Expo. “Part of the arrangement is to take them [at least 40] on a tour. This year, we have chosen to bring the delegates to a tour in [the] Taal town. While we have already thought of a backup plan, we have not canceled or abandon the original plan.”
He added, the organization has yet to receive reports from exhibitors that they will scrap Tagaytay from their offerings.
Image credits: Roy Domingo