MANILA, Philippines?Travelers from Hong Kong and mainland China have canceled more than 1,000 Philippine package tours after eight Hong Kong tourists were killed in a bus hijacking in Manila, Chinese state media said Monday.
The Philippine tourism industry could suffer losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next three months, the China Daily reported, quoting Philippine Department of Tourism Undersecretary Simeon P. Marfori.
Big market
Hong Kong tourists accounted for one in ten of all inbound tourists to the Philippines while Chinese tourists represented the highest growth market of visitors to the country, Marfori said. The report provided no other figures.
But leaders of a group of foreign investors, in a forum in Manila, said they don?t see the hostage-taking case to have long-term effects on investor confidence.
Hubert d?Aboville, president of the European Chamber of Commerce, said while the hostage taking was tragic and showed the shortcomings of police, it won?t have any huge effect on investment climate in the Philippines.
Bigger picture
?Investment is not subject to this kind of tragic event. Let?s focus ourselves on the bigger picture,? he said. ?It?s tragic indeed and it will take some time to heal but it will eventually.?
D?Aboville and other officials of the Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC), a group of investors in the Philippines, Monday signed an agreement with the labor department to help improve what the JFC considers as the ?big winner? industries or the most promising investment areas in the country?agribusiness, business process outsourcing, creative industries, infrastructure, manufacturing and logistics, mining and tourism and medical travel and retirement.
It happens anywhere
D?Aboville said he had met with officials of 25 French firms ?and we are explaining to them what the situation in the Philippines is.?
Shameem Qurash, head of the Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters, said stories about the bloodbath shouldn?t be blown out of proportion.
?It happens all over the world,? he said. ?This is not the only country where there are problems.?
