The Philippines has lost half of European tourists, who have shifted to other ASEAN destinations following the closure of island paradise Boracay, while tour operators scramble to come up with packages that would entice over 500,000 upscale and backpacker tourists to keep their bookings in the country, a top official of the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) said. Guenter Taus, ECCP president, told reporters at the 40th ECCP Anniversary celebration at Solaire Resorts Hotel, that with lots of options in southeast Asia, the Philippines lost these European tourists to Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. When asked how much the Philippines have lost from the EU tourists,Taus said it is hard to put a figure but said it could be "half of what you normally expect, the upscale tourists pretty much everything (lost). "There were 553,000 European tourists (50­50 upscale and backpackers )last year in the country with an estimated average expense per tourist of $2,000 for 10­14 day stay.According to Taus, European tourists verbalized during their tourism mission of their apprehension on government policies saying, "If you can close one island, you can close any island anytime." President Duterte, who described Boracay as a "cesspool," ordered the island paradise closed for six months effective April 26, falling this summer season, to allow the government to rehabilitate the world­ famous tourist destination. As a result, Taus said it has now become absolutely difficult to book European tourists for the Philippines because people got scared as some tours had "500 people got booked but don't get their money back so they don't want to touch the Philippines. "According to Taus, tour operators did not refund the paid tour packages because they claimed the closure of Boracay was a force majeure."But it is not a force majeure because it was closed by government, there are a number of legal issues there that are not perceived very well," said Taus. Despite knowing that European tourists are pretty much set already, ECCP has tried to mitigate the situation and shifted away from Boracay. "We shifted when the news broke in EU that Boracay was to close and we said we had others not only Boracay we have Bohol, Siquijor lots of islands. According to Taus, the closure of Boracay made their three­ week tourism mission in Europe tough."It was hard to sell the Philippines as tourism destination, so we changed direction," he said. The larger tour operators, who know Philippines has a lot of natural resources shifted to Cebu, but Taus said there was nobody there who could organize tour packages properly. Noting how picky European tourists are, Taus said ECCP started to come up with tour packages that are not mainstream, but offering unique experiences, like tourists living in with fishermen. EU Ambassador to the Philippines Franz Jessen said they are concentrating also on Green tourism like their Bicycle trip to El Nido from Puerto Princesa as another good way to see the country. "In the packages that we do, we focus also on environment we talk to people that actively get involved in mangroves we look at biking, hiking and different outdoor activities, living with fishermen in fishing villages and for tourists to go out fishing everyday, "Taus added. There are a number of things that tour operators can do actually, he said, as European tourists would say that mainstream tourism are long gone and want something different not been done before.Taus believes that ECCP is in a good position to offer that. He also expressed optimism that tourism will bounce back as the Boracay news died down and new destinations getting discovered.

This article was originally published in the Manila Bulletin on May 19, 2018.