Even with Friday declared a regular holiday in celebration of the Muslims’ Eid’l Fitr and a popular Strawberry Festival in Benguet Province, it is a subdued long weekend in the Philippines with majority of families choosing to stay at home due to skyrocketing fuel prices.
With long weekends a persuasive reason for Filipinos to visit tourism spots with their family and friends, tourism operators are starting to worry that a prolonged Middle East conflict would adversely affect their businesses.
Already, the country’s “summer capital” is reporting reduced tourist arrivals when the Eid Mubarak holiday and the weekend should be bringing the usual horde of local tourists from the country’s lowlands.
With enticing temperatures hovering between 16 and 19 degree Celcius, Baguio City is offering the last cool weather before the onset of warm and humid weather typical of the tropical country from April to August.
Less strawberry pickers
The ongoing Strawberry Festival in Baguio’s neighboring city of La Trinidad has seen empty parking slots for the first time in years, mainly due to prohibitive fuel prices.
Strawberry picking in the city’s fertile valley is an amazingly popular activity for families and group of friends in March when the berries are red and plump.
But the festival’s elaborately planned annual trade fair, acoustic band competitions and a civic parade featuring agricultural floats to highlight the town’s agro-tourism industry are no matches to the dampening effects of fuel prices that have doubled since the US and Israel attacked Iran.
La Trinidad Mayor Roderick Awingan admitted as much: “Yes, we noticed a drop in tourist arrival in our city. The particular reason is fuel price hikes.”
Awingan went on to describe the effects as “drastic.”
From the mountains to the beaches
In Boracay Island, the Philippines’ foremost tourism draw, authorities are putting up a brave front despite nationwide fears of a prolonged war in the Middle impacting airline ticket prices.
The Malay-Boracay tourism office continues to invite visitors during the ongoing long-weekend, to be followed by another long-weekend a fortnight later, on April 2 to 5, because of Christian Easter holiday.
Almost 60,000 tourists visited the small island during Easter 2025 – marking a 5.7% increase from the previous year – despite Boracay having only a carrying capacity of 19,215 tourists.
The Christian Holy Week is Boracay’s biggest tourism season of the entire year.
There is genuine fear among hotel and restaurant operators of reduced arrivals this year as plane fares in the Philippines will rise significantly from April 1 to 15.
The Philippine Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) announced the fuel surcharges increases this week due to oil price spikes brought about by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Domestic surcharges will increase to P253–P787 while international fees will rise to P835–P6,209 more than doubling previous costs. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)