By Tracy Cabrera

CEBU City, Cebu — Facing a resulting tourism downturn due to the global energy crisis, at least 22 hotels and resorts in Cebu have introduced discounts of up to 50 percent through 'workcation' and 'staycation' packages.
Accordingly, the packages will target domestic travelers and selected international markets even as the current year's strong start to local tourism now faces a stiff challenge with global pressures threatening to slow one of the province’s biggest economic drivers.
The Cebu Provincial Board forecasted that Cebu’s tourism sector could see a drop of around 213,000 passengers this year if current global conditions persist. Board member Red Duterte, chairman of the Committee on Tourism, announced the projection, citing figures from the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority.
Chairman Duterte likewise warned that geopolitical tensions and rising travel costs are beginning to affect passenger movement and airline operations as the current global crisis begins to take a toll in the tourism industry.
“Our stakeholders are starting to feel the pinch,” he noted while pointing to rising jet fuel costs as the major pressure point that had impacted on airline expenses and route decisions.
“As fuel costs rise, so does jet fuel . . . for airlines, 40 percent of their cost is fuel,” he added.
Duterte named among those affected are international and domestic routes with carriers such as Qatar Airways suspending its Cebu flights, Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific trimming down some domestic connections including its Cebu–Ozamiz and Cebu–Calbayog flights and Vietnam Airlines reducing its Hanoi–Cebu services.
However, the Cebu Tourism Committee chair noted that despite the adverse situation, Cebu had recorded strong tourism growth in the first quarter if the year with tourist arrivals surpassing pre-pandemic levels. Domestic travelers, he highlighted, rose from 2.26 million to 2.56 million, while international arrivals increased from 780,000 to 919,000, bringing total passenger traffic to 3.55 million.
In ending, Duterte asserted that while the early figures remained positive, he cautioned that a slowdown was expected from early June if conditions do not improve.
“So we were supposed to be on a very good start for this year (but still) the momentum may not hold,” he concluded to stress that the projected decline would directly affect local economies that rely on tourism spending, particularly communities dependent on visitor inflows.