Tacloban hotels already fully booked for papal visit

Pope Francis. AP FILE PHOTO

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines—With still five months to go before the scheduled visit here of Pope Francis, hotels in Tacloban are already fully booked, according to the City Tourism Office.

“His visit will help us boost our tourism industry aside from the fact that it will be a (spiritually) uplifting experience,” said Ruby Balanyanto, the tourism office’s operations officer.

She said the authorities were planning to ask boarding houses to accommodate visitors since they did not believe that the 47 hotels in Tacloban could accommodate the throngs of devotees expected to come to see the Holy Father on January 15 to 19.

“We are now doing some coordination with the owners of boarding houses in Tacloban to see if they can accommodate the visitors who are expected to come to the city during the papal visit,” she said.

There are more than 200 boarding houses in Tacloban but many of them are still being repaired after being damaged by Supertyphoon Yolanda (Haiyan) which all but levelled Tacloban last November.

Private homes are also expected to accommodate visitors during the papal visit, the first ever for Eastern Visayas, which is still  reeling from the aftermath of Yolanda, the world’s most powerful typhoon to ever hit land.

The Archdiocese of Palo has yet to announce the venue of the Pope’s Mass.  The venues being considered are the government center in Palo town and a paved area near the Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport in Tacloban.

The town of Palo is considered the seat of Catholicism in Eastern Visayas because this is where the archdiocese’s cathedral is located and this is where the archbishop resides.

Pinky Cinco, manager of the Leyte Park hotel, said that it was getting ready for the papal visit and has received inquiries from abroad for room accommodation.

“We are getting inquiries from the States. Some of them are from Taclobanons who will come here not only for the papal visit but also to visit the city after Yolanda,” Cinco said.

She said they were planning to convert their function rooms and six dorms into rooms that could be used by tourists because they anticipate that their 86 rooms and six villas would not be enough.