CEBU CITY--Reports about suspected H1N1 flu cases in Cebu have been scaring off tourists, local officials admitted.

Marco Protacio, general manager of the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino and president of the Hotels Resorts Restaurants Association in Cebu (HRRAC), revealed on Sunday international and local clients canceled their bookings following reports that two persons were quarantined at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.

Both persons were later found to be negative of the so-called swine flu or H1N1 flu virus, which is a mutation of the swine, bird and human flu viruses.

"We really cannot afford to have anymore tourist scares ... It was sensationalized in the media so a lot of corporate accounts from abroad and from other parts of the country canceled out," Protacio said.

Protacio said he could not quantify yet the business earnings lost.

"The hotel product is very perishable. If this day passes and I cannot sell the rooms today, I can not make up for the losses of today, unlike selling cars. If you are supposed to sell one car a month and you don't sell a car this month, you can sell two cars next month. But in the hotel, it's not like that. Once the day passes, the product perishes," Protacio said.

Protracio said they were happy that the Department of Health (DOH) promptly announced the negative results on the two persons.

The 26-year-old British woman, who was in Mexico before she came to Cebu, was released on Thursday after the test conducted by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) showed she was suffering from simple flu and not from H1N1 virus.

The second suspected case, a 32-year-old overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who arrived with his wife from Ireland via Hong Kong last May 5, was also cleared on Friday.

Doctors learned that the high temperature that he registered at the Mactan Cebu International Airport's thermal scanner was caused by bacterial infection.

"We are happy ... It means Cebu remains a safe tourist destination," Protacio said.

Protacio suggested that reports of H1N1 flue cases be handled more discreetly to protect the tourism industry and the privacy of persons.

But Protacio expressed full support for the screening of all arriving passengers.

"I think they should really continue because we really have to prevent this disease from entering the country," he said.