HIGH fuel costs and recent calamities have hurt this city's tourism industry, with the number of tourist arrivals plummeting in May and June this year.

Citing records of the city government, Mayor Hernani Braganza said Alaminos' main tourist drawer, the Hundred Islands National Park, attracted only 18,787 visitors in May, down from 21,764 who arrived in the same month last year.

Braganza appealed to tourists to visit the Hundred Islands, and help the city recover from the devastation wrought by Typhoon "Cosme" (international code name Halong)in May.

But Filipinos, who comprised the bulk of tourist arrivals in the past years, seem to have difficulty coping with the economic crisis that they are shunning recreational areas such as the Hundred Islands, he said.