By:  SARWELL Q. MENIANO

TACLOBAN CITY – Eastern Visayas will loss more than P1 billion this year from tourists receipt due to supertyphoon Yolanda’s devastation that affected the region’s emerging tourism industry.

But the Department of Tourism (DOT) quickly said the sector in
storm-stricken areas is “not dead” after the storm as the region
gained popularity from post disaster international media reports.
“Although the region will lose a lot due to typhoon impact, this will open new opportunities for us especially that many foreigners are now familiar of Tacloban, Leyte and Samar,” said Tourism Regional Director Karina Rosa Tiopes.
Tourists receipt in storm-ravaged areas was pegged at P1.23 billion during the first six months of the year. The figure is almost the same level of P1.46 billion and P1.56 billion gained during the entire year of 2012 and 2011, respectively.
“The estimated income loss is based on the actual tourist receipt in the past three years in Tacloban City, Leyte, Baybay City, Ormoc City, Eastern Samar, Biliran, Basey and Marabut in Samar,” Tiopes told Leyte Samar Daily Express.
As of end of December, only 18 hotels are back to business. At least 68 hotels are non-operational and 64 have partially opened.
One of the hotels that completely shut down after storm Yolanda is The Oriental Leyte located in a beachfront property in Palo town. Tsunami-like storm surge has damaged all the 110 hotel rooms.
Tiopes said the presence of international humanitarian groups is a plus factor to the region’s tourism industry. “They are not just here to bring aids, but like tourists, they also spend money.”
The 60 contingents of Samaritan Purse exclusively occupy the
newly-built Hotel Lorenza along the city’s Imelda Avenue. They also provided generator set and offered to shoulder fuel consumption.
Hotel Alejandro, located on the city’s Paterno Street, which was badly damaged by storm surge, was repaired by the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) for their office and accommodation space.
Oxfam, an anti-poverty confederation of 17 international organizations, now occupies the Leyte Park Hotel situated on the city’s Magsaysay Boulevard.
Kenneth Uy, owner of Asia Star’s Hotel located in city’s downtown, said they have been losing contact with regular guests after the storm. However, the facility still maintains the same occupancy rate with 25 of the 45 rooms occupied daily.
“We lost our preferred clients since our online booking does not work, but we got new guests. Those who have no plans to come like relatives and friends of typhoon survivors, have been coming,” Uy added.
Minerva Rodriguez, manager of Luxury Suite situated on Burgos St. said the presence of international humanitarian organizations have forced them to reopen amid wreckage and absence of power supply few weeks after the disaster.
“Different organizations convinced us to reopen. They also provided a generator set and repair some of our damaged rooms,” Rodriguez said.
Luxury Suite, which is now exclusively used by United Nations
Children’s Fund (Unicef) was previously occupied by representatives of United UN OCHA, International Organization for Migration, Japan International for Cooperation Agency and World Health Organization.
The tourism department is largely counting on stories of recovery to promote the region from being devastated to a rising area.
“Our promotion will continue but we will repackage our message. We want to highlight stories of recovery,” Tiopes added.

By:  RYAN GABRIEL L. ARCENAS

TACLOBAN CITY- The regional office of the Department of Tourism is set to conduct its assessment on tourism-development areas hit by supertyphoon Yolanda.

The assessment will be done within this month, says Tourism Regional Director Karen Tiopes.“We will engage or consult the stakeholders such as the local government units and non-government organizations to find out what are their plans with regards to the development of our tourism,” Tiopes said.

In region, the towns that were severely affected are located in the provinces of Leyte and Eastern Samar.
Tiopes said that she is upbeat that once the rehabilitation of these typhoon-hit areas are completed, tourists would come in considering that the region had virtually became known to the world after Yolanda devastated on November 8.
Tiopes also said that they would tap areas in the region which were least affected by the supertyphoon like Southern Leyte, Northern Samar and northwest Leyte in which they will develop and promote market “volunteerism” tours shore up the tourism industry of affected areas like Tacloban.
“Tourists can go there to help build houses for villages destroyed or wiped out by the super typhoon,” Tiopes emphasized.
She said that volunteerism will encourage tourists to help rehabilitate those typhoon affected areas in the region and at the same time protect the environment.

By:  SARWELL Q. MENIANO

PALO, Leyte – Eastern Visayas, country’s second top coconut producing area, suffered a P16.60 billion loss after super typhoon Yolanda flattened coconut farms in five provinces.Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) Regional Manager Edilberto Nierva said 33.82 million trees have been damaged, accounting 46% of the region’s 72.75 million thriving coconut trees.“Nearly half of damaged trees will have no chance of recovery because these were either snapped or toppled by strong wind and storm surge,” said Nierva, who temporarily holds office in a canteen after their office was destroyed by the supertyphoon.Of the 33.82 million affected trees, 15.04 million were categorized as totally damaged, 9.06 million severely damaged, 4.98 million slightly damaged, and 4.84 million moderately damaged.“It will take one year for slightly and moderately damaged trees to regenerate. Severely damaged trees will not bear fruit for two to three years,” Nierva added.Reynaldo Redoña, a 43-year-old coconut farmer in Barangay Pago, Tanauan, Leyte said that of his 300 bearing trees, about 285 trees were toppled or sheared by the storm. “Only 15 trees were left standing, but it will take years before these remaining trees will produce nuts,” said Redoña, gesturing towards his typhoon-ravaged farm that provides up to P6,000 quarterly income. The farmer, whose family survived from the storm by hiding under a lavatory, is unsure if his 15-year-old son could finish college since it will take about five years before they will regain their income after replanting. Cornelio Castila, a 73-year old coconut farmer in Barangay Calao, Burauen, also in Leyte, hopes the government will immediately implement replanting activities or else people will go hungry in the next few years. “Of the 400 planted trees, only less than a hundred were spared by strong wind, but some of these remaining trees were badly damaged,” said Castila, who earns P2,000 monthly from cultivating four hectares of coconut farm. Castila’s plight is shared by 1,160,332 coconut farmers in the region cultivating 295,191 hectares of land slammed by supertyphoon on November 8. Nierva said their agency will distribute 15.04 million trees for massive replanting activities in the next five years, with a funding requirement of P16.5 million. Leyte, a major coconut growing province, suffered a P12.16 billion loss. Other coconut producing provinces also posted income loss due to storm’s wrath. These are Eastern Samar (P3.29 billion), Samar (P588.97 million), Biliran (P465.77 million) and Southern Leyte (P91.92 million). Benjamin Yu, PCA regional regulation officer projected a 338,242 metric tons loss in copra output due to storm destruction. “Coconut oil production is expected to slowdown by half since two major oil mills in Leyte were slammed by storm. Considering the extent of damages in these plants, it will take years for these plants to recover and resume normal operation,” Yu added.