NEWSFLASH

Manila, Aug. 21, 2000 - With the Abu Sayyaf hostage crisis in Sulu nearing its end, President Estrada has ordered Tourism Secretary Gemma Cruz-Araneta to step up the campaign to give the pockmarked image of the Philippines a drastic makeover.

At the South Metro Journalists forum at the Ayala Alabang Country Club yesterday, the tourism secretary disclosed that the Abu Sayyaf hostage crisis is blamed for the 1.49% decline in foreign tourist arrivals in the country for the first six months of this year.

In May alone, she said, tourist arrivals dropped five percent.

Araneta said records show that international tourist arrivals in the Philippines reached only 1.09 million from January to June. She now admits the impossibility of meeting the Department of Tourism (DOT)'s target of 2.3 million tourist arrivals for the year.

"We will consider ourselves fortunate if we reach the two million mark (of tourist arrivals) by the end of this year," she said.

Because of this serious impact of the Abu Sayyaf hostage crisis, Araneta said, the DOT established a Task Force on Communications "to mitigate the negative image of the Philippines which it suddenly acquired due to the hostage-taking."

"So that they (foreign tourists) will realize that the Philippines is composed of 7,100 islands where there is peace, security and harmony despite isolated incidents like this Abu Sayyaf hostage crisis," Araneta pointed out.

While there has been considerable decline in the Western European tourism market since Abu Sayyaf hostages include French, Germans and Finnish nationals, Araneta noted that Philippine tourism markets in East Asia and North American remain upbeat.