Baguio City hotels hit  93 percent occupancy

BAGUIO CITY — The more than 60 hotels and inns in this mountain resort 250 kilometers north of Manila registered more than 93 percent occupancy rate in the past three days as an estimated close to one million visitors spent their Christmas holiday here.
The estimate was based on information furnished by the hotels and restaurants as well as ocular inspections of all parks and other public places where observers likened the holiday crowd similar to the main highlights of the city’s flower festival every February.

Gabriel Keith, tourism operations officer of the City Tourism Office (CTO), said that many of the visitors have gone out of Baguio since this morning “but many are also arriving for their observance of New Year’s Day here.”
He said that the transport, lodging, communications, food and recreation sectors of the tourism industry were “greatly benefited by the long periods of vacation plus the amenities of our city which is its unique cold weather.”
Records show that it was last December 24 when the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) recorded 11 degrees celsius as the coldest temperature this month.
The minimum temperature as of Wednesday at 12.4 degrees celsius is an indirect effect of typhoon “Quinta” which already hit some areas in the Visayas Region like Bacolod City.
Meanwhile, Keith said the CTO determined that aside from the Baguio amenities of tourism, the stable peace and order contributed much to visitors’ confidence of spending their holidays here.
Police Superintendent Jesus Cambay, city director of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) said that by the “Oplan Paskua”, police visibility and intensified patrols prevented the commission of crime in the city during the period.
As confirmed by Police Inspector Virgilio Hidalgo, head of the BCPO tourism oriented police (TOP COP) unit, the police blotters were almost clean during the period with only one case of pickpocket in the central business district.