NEWSFLASH

CAGAYAN DE ORO TOURIST INDUSTRY STANDS TO LOSE P144-M

Cagayan de Oro City, June 25, 2000 - The president of the Cagayan de Oro Hotel and Restaurant Association (COHARA) claims that the negative reportage on Mindanao by the Manila press has already cost the city’s tourism industry P18.6 million in cancellations as of May this year. He added that the industry stands to lose another P143.8 million if nine scheduled conventions and MICE events with bookings for 13,700 delegates are cancelled.

During a meeting with Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the Cagayan de Oro Business Council early this week, Eileen E. San Juan, COHARA president presented a five-point program of "doables" to Arroyo which included investigating the reported delisting of Mindanao as a convention destination by PCVC and helping disseminate the fact that it’s “business as usual” in the rest of the island not covered by the Mindanao conflict.

"We’d also like to encourage your fellow members in the Cabinet and heads of government agencies in Manila to hold their conferences, seminars, trainings and meetings in Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental, or other places in Mindanao not involved in the AFP-MILF conflict," San Juan said.

"Consecutive visits by Cabinet secretaries in Cagayan de Oro will go a long way in restoring visitor traffic to this part of Mindanao."

Other confidence-building measures proposed by COHARA included encouraging media to emphasize that the AFP-MILF conflict only covers the Cotabato-Lanao-Sulu areas that comprise a "minute fraction" of what is really going on in Mindanao, and encouraging government officials to attend the 9th Mindanao Business Conference scheduled on July 27-29 in Koronadal, South Cotabato “if only to send the signal of confidence to the rest of the country."

The Vice President concurred that a program to restore confidence in Mindanao was needed to complement the government’s P20-billion economic recovery program for the island.

"We must also have a confidence recovery program because even if the macro figures, the objective reality of Cagayan de Oro for instance, and other parts of Mindanao are good, it’s also a perception game especially if you’re talking tourism," Arroyo said.