Cebu hotels rebooting, recovering

The Mactan Shrine in Lapu-Lapu City in the days before the pandemic. Cebu is slowly opening up to tourists, starting with locals and those from other parts of Central Visayas. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

CEBU CITY—After being hit hard by the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the tourism sector here is ready to accept guests now that restrictions are loosening up. Their offering? Discounted rates and improved health, safety and sanitation protocols.

For JPark Island Resort on Mactan Island, additional safety measures have been put in place in their property—thermal scanning, foot bath mats, ultraviolet light disinfection devices, and misting machines, among others.

Some dining outlets and concessionaires in the hotel, have, however, remained closed.

“We had to ensure our guests’ safety since this is our top priority. We had to start implementing safety measures throughout the property. We had to do cost-cutting measures as well by using our newly installed solar panels,” shared Fresha Anne Cajandig, JPark’s marketing and communications OIC.

Although they lost more than 50 percent of their forecast arrivals in the past seven months, the lull in their operations gave them the chance to properly prepare for its reopening and it has paid off.

Cajandig said they were starting to have good occupancy rates, especially on weekends due to families who want to have a so-called staycation.

“We have been very indulgent in offering our current room rates. We are offering our rooms more than 60 percent off the regular rates. We are doing constant promotions on our social media accounts. And most importantly, we are assuring our guests of a safe stay with us,” she said when asked how they are enticing people to visit their resort.

For Bluewater Resorts, they have been developing promos and offers that are geared toward the local market.

“We tried to adapt our offers to the current need of the market. For example, we have packages that allow professionals and teachers access to the robust internet infrastructure of the resort during the GCQ (general community quarantine) and MGCQ (modified general community quarantine) period where these are most critical. We are one of the first to offer work-from-hotel packages and Work Study and Play offers to families,” said Margie Munsayac, VP for sales and marketing of Bluewater Resorts.

She added that they have also developed packages and offers for the foreign tourist markets but these will only be rolled out as soon as they start coming in.

Bluewater Resorts operates two properties in Cebu: Bluewater Maribago in Mactan Island and Bluewater Sumilon in Sumilon Island in the southern Cebu town of Oslob,which was recently shortlisted in the Destination Deluxe Awards 2020 for Private Island of the Year category.

Last Aug. 1, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia reopened tourism activities in the province although no walk-in guests, however, were allowed in all travel destinations and were limited to locals.

Those who want to visit the tourist destinations in the province should register through discover.cebu.gov.ph., an online portal managed by the Cebu Provincial Tourism Task Force.

Now, Garcia was considering reopening its borders for tourists from provinces in Central Visayas.

“Central Visayas first. From there, we will see what will happen and if we can expand soon. Let’s do it gradually,” she said.

Garcia said she would meet with the Provincial Tourism Task Force so they could come up with guidelines that could be implemented in the next few weeks.

Central Visayas, which is composed of Bohol, Cebu, Siquijor and Negros Oriental, has been placed under MGCQ, the most liberal quarantine mode, until at least Dec. 31.

Last October, Cebu and the Visayas islands were named Top Island in Asia, according to the 2020 Readers’ Choice Awards of Condé Nast Traveler, a luxury and lifestyle magazine that features destination guides and others in the world.

Cebu and Visayas got a score of 95.73, outranking Sri Lanka (2nd); Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand (3rd); Palawan (4th); Siargao Island (5th), and Boracay (6th), which although located in Visayas was made a separate entry.

According to Efren Carreon, director of the National Economic and Development Authority in Central Visayas, Central Visayas has lost $713 million, or at least P35.5 billion, in tourism revenues due to quarantine restrictions and border closures brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Carreon said the amount of foregone income from foreign tourist arrivals from January to June 2020 could have been higher if they computed the impact on domestic tourism.

According to the Hotels, Resorts, and Restaurants Association of Cebu Inc. (HRRAC), an estimated 2,000 hotel employees and restaurant workers lost their jobs due to the pandemic.

Like most hotels and resorts, Bluewater Resorts also suffered a 70-percent drop in occupancy due to the pandemic.But the months of lockdown paved the way for the management to brainstorm on how they could adapt to the “new normal.”

“The preparations were already made during the lockdown period. Planning and strategy meetings were done via online applications, same goes with command and control measures as well as training of our staff. We also invested on new equipment and cleaning solutions to ensure a safe and hygienic resort,” Munsayac shared.

By the time tourism activities were allowed, the resorts were ready to accept the influx of locals, who were eager to get out of their homes after months of being stuck at home.

HRRAC president Carlo Anton Suarez said the tourism industry was currently operating on “survival mode.”

“In our industry, we are here to survive. We are here to give work to our people. We are trying our best to save on everything for us not to remove more people,” he shared.

Based on HRRAC data, occupancy rate in resorts and in city hotels on weekdays was below 5 percent.

On weekends, the numbers go up to 15 to 25 percent for city hotels and 30 to 45 percent for resorts.

While there are efforts to reopen tourism sites, Suarez said some travel and movement restriction of local government units made it “challenging” and “a hassle” for locals.

Suarez said they had proposed that local governments allow movement for travel and leisure as long as two essential requirements are met—a negative swab or antigen test and a confirmed hotel or resort booking.

“If this can be implemented, we will slowly recover,” he said.

Suarez said the discounted rates were only good for the weekend market when the locals were not at work.

For the industry to become more sustainable in the new normal, he said the weekday market should also be revived—thus, the need for work conferences, meetings and other events.

Suarez explained that hotels and resorts in the province have been complying and implementing workplace protocols as provided by the Department of Tourism, the Department of Trade and Industry and the different local government units (LGUs).

“We are exerting even more effort to have health restrictions and protocols in place to ensure our customers’ safety. We need customer confidence,” Suarez said.

“Where do we start? We need to start from the LGUs, for them to encourage and ensure Cebuanos by easing restrictions. That would really help our economy,” he added. —with a report from Ador Vincent Mayol