CEBU CITY—There might be a looming economic crisis but it was business as usual for tourism-related businesses and the retail industry as people spent the holidays shopping and taking a respite from their busy lives by staying at hotels and resorts or eating out.

In Cebu and Boracay, hotels and resorts enjoyed very high occupancy rates, with some fully booked for the duration of the holidays.

Marco Protacio, president of Hotels Resorts Restaurants Association in Cebu (HRRAC), said in a text message that the long holidays declared by Malacañang have had a major economic impact on tourism-related businesses.

Resorts in Lapu-Lapu City, such as the Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort and Spa, the Plantation Bay Resort and Marigondon Blue Water Beach Resort, reported high occupancy rates with some fully booked until early 2009.

Both Shangri-La Mactan and Plantation Bay said they had been fully booked since a few days before Dec. 25 until early January 2009. Most of their guests were foreigners with some locals, mostly families who stayed for at least three days.

The Maribago Bluewater, which also has both foreign and local guests, said they were fully booked starting Dec. 26 until Jan. 2.

Resorts and hotels in Boracay also reported a boost in occupancy rates with most reporting they were fully booked.

A chartered plane from Kamchatsky in Russia with 130 tourists arrived in the country Sunday on their way to Boracay Island, according to Edwin Trompeta, Department of Tourism (DOT) regional director for Western Visayas.

Trompeta said more Russian tourists were expected to arrive in Boracay and Cebu on Jan. 4.

Loubelle Cann, president of the business group Boracay Foundation Inc., said they expected more tourists to come in for the New Year’s Day celebration.

However, Cann said that unlike the previous years, there were more local tourists than foreign tourists coming to Boracay.

Even small resorts also enjoyed brisk business, such as the Villa Teresita Resort in Talisay City, which has been fully booked since Dec. 23 although they increased entrance fees by P10 and rental fees for cottages by P50.

The Mambukal Resort in Murcia, Negros Occidental also drew families who came for day outings, resort manager Ellen Vasquez said.

However, some have checked into the resort cottages for two to three days with the older resort visitors bringing their mahjong sets for more sedate entertainment and the younger ones walking around the resort and swimming, Vasquez said.

The other beach resorts on Guimaras Island and other provinces in Western Visayas were also teeming with tourists.

In Eastern Visayas, mountain and beach resorts in Leyte also attracted tourists while some people preferred going to Samar Island, particularly to nearby Basey and Marabut towns where resorts dot the coastline.

Some people who have guests, especially balikbayans, usually treat their visitors to a brief tour of several places of interests in the city and nearby areas, like the MacArthur Memorial Park in Palo, Leyte; San Juanico Bridge in Cabalawan, Tacloban City, the Sto. Niño Shrine and Heritage Museum and the World War II Photo Gallery at Hotel Alejandro, all in Tacloban City.

The holiday economics also contributed to the high traffic in Cebu’s shopping malls. Some of the malls took advantage of the long break by holding sales, staging entertainment and fireworks display to encourage more shoppers.

The other retail outlets and the bazaars that abounded in the urban areas in the Visayas also experienced good sales.

The shopping malls in Metro Cebu, the cities of Iloilo, Bacolod and Tacloban also extended their shopping hours to accommodate customers. Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Vicente Labro, Jhunnex Napallacan and Carla P. Gomez Inquirer Visayas

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