Haiyan wreaks little havoc on corporate travel and MICE

CORPORATE travel and business events to Cebu City and Mactan Island appear to have been spared from the same fate leisure tourism business in the province and the Visayas are enduring following the devastating landfall of super typhoon Haiyan.

Cebu City and Mactan Island are the business and commercial hubs of Cebu province and the Visayas.

Jerome Coronado, inbound supervisor of Swire Travel Philippines, Inc., said the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that hit Bohol and Cebu on October 15 – three weeks before the super typhoon struck – had caused more business travel cancellations and postponement of events in Cebu.

Agreeing, Wow Philippines Travel Agency general manager, Relly Magundayao, said business returned a week after the super typhoon struck, although there had been some postponement of business travel to Cebu, from this year to sometime in 2014, and fewer enquiries for teambuilding activities in Boracay.

In fact, several days after Haiyan struck, Cebu’s hotel sector is enjoying full occupancy due to the onslaught of foreign journalists, international relief agencies and non-profit organisations, and military aid personnel using Cebu as their gateway and warehouse centre to Tacloban and eastern Samar.

Some of the hotels that have reported strong occupancies include Cebu City Marriott, Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu and Best Western Plus Lex Cebu.

Hotels are expected to continue to be booked out as the stricken areas in the Visayas continue to merit international aid.

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