Tourists in the “Summer Capital of the Philippines” had been halved by skyrocketing fuel prices brought about by the war in the Middle East, and some residents are saying it may be a good thing.
Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong said there are 50 per cent less tourists in what used to be the busiest time of the year in the mountaintop city.
The chief executive said that rising petrol and diesel prices have deterred many tourists from motoring to Baguio while hotels have reported cancelled bookings.
During peak tourism seasons, such as Holy Week and the Panagbenga Flower Festival in December, as many a 1.5 million overnight arrive in Baguio, famous for its cool weather and other attractions.
It is just as well, according to some residents.
There are now less traffic gridlocks in Baguio’s streets and there is less pressure on the city’s water supply that often becomes insufficient when tourists come in droves.
Baguio is not just tourism
Book author and journalist Frank Cimatu said that the unintended benefits of reduced volume of visitors should urge the local government to contemplate its “over-dependence” on tourism.
“It’s about time that the city contemplates the situation. We are so dependent on tourism that it seems the city revolves around tourism,” Cimatu told Khaleej Times.
Cimatu said that residents like him are often reminded to sacrifice their weekends to tourists. And Holy Week and other peak tourism seasons feel like penance already.
The ancestral domain of the Ibaloi people of the Cordillera region of the Philippines, Baguio became a resort town for the American colonial forces. They built their country club, gold course, and the Philippine Military Academy amid the area’s beautiful scenery and cool climate.
Throughout decades, it became a haven for artists, writers, musicians and it hosts a number of universities, drawn by Baguio’s quiet compared to Metro Manila.
The city’s charms are being eroded by “over-tourism,” according to Cimatu, worsened by the opening of superhighways that made it faster to travel to the 1,500-meter plateau.
Faraway war affects ordinary residents
Cimatu’s fellow journalist Kimberly Quitasol agrees that less tourists may be better for their beloved city.
“It is good that there are no traffic gridlocks and it is less crowded at the city center,” she said.
Quitasol hastened to add that she feels bad for the small businesses affected by reduced tourist arrivals. “There is now less income for the vegetable vendors, transient house operations, souvenir sellers at our tourist spots,” she said.
“I do not care about the big hotels and businesses,” she said, “but I wish the war to stop as our drivers are no longer earning anything. Diesel prices have tripled here,” she concluded. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
