CEBU CITY - Ambassadors and other foreign dignitaries from seven countries expressed confidence in the peace and order climate in the Philippines and vowed to further forge economic and business ties with the country. The seven ambassadors, who were in Cebu for a business forum organized by the city government to celebrate Mandaue City's 41st Charter Day, paid a courtesy call to Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia Monday and assured the business community of further trade ties between their countries and the Philippines.

Ambassadors Hos Sereythonh of Cambodia, Kristiarto Legowo of Indonesia, Mohsin Razi of Pakistan, Nawalage Bennet Cooray of Sri Lanka and Wadee Al-Batt of Iraq said last Monday's tragedy won't stop them from fostering trade ties with the Philippines. Just like the rest of the envoys, Deputy Head of Mission of Vietnam Pham Pao and Venezuelan Charge d'Affaires Manuel Perez Iturbe also said they will encourage people from their own countries to visit Cebu and the rest of the Philippines, notwithstanding the bad publicity plaguing the country as a result of the hostage-taking fiasco in Manila last week. "The Philippines is a wonderful country and Cebu is an excellent business and tourist destination," Ambassador Razi said. "If you do business, you have to take some risks; no one can guarantee your safety absolutely," Iraqi Ambassador Wadee Al-Batt said. The foreign dignitaries said they have not received communications from their respective countries regarding an adverse travel advisory against the Philippines following the much- sensationalized hostage drama at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila.

The gathering of foreign dignitaries in the business forum held at Cebu International Convention Center Monday afternoon was one of the highlights in Mandaue City's 41st founding anniversary celebration. Entitled, "Business Trade Promotion," this year's theme is "Building Bridges. Discovering New Horizons." Meanwhile, Cebu's tourism industry is starting to the feel the pinch of the travel advisory issued by the Hong Kong government with the cancellation of a number of scheduled tours from Hong Kong to Cebu up to the end of September, at least. The Department of Tourism (DoT) in Central Visayas is still gathering more data on flight and hotel cancellations but DoT 7 Officer-in-Charge Rowena Montecillo said Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City has already reported a 30-room cancellation from the former Crown Colony. She said that aside from the cancellation of scheduled tours by Hong Kong nationals to Cebu in September, one tour operator was notified that a tour set for January 2011 had likewise been cancelled. Two regular flights from Hong Kong bring in at least 120 Hong Kong nationals to Cebu on a daily basis and currently Hong Kong tourists rank fifth in terms of the number of foreign visitors visiting Cebu, according to Montecillo.

She said in the period January to June 30, 2010, Mactan International Airport recorded 13,646 arrivals visitors from Hong Kong and 22,235 arrivals of Chinese nationals from the People's Republic of China. The DoT statistics show that there were a total of 47,715 Hong Kong nationals that visited the country during the first four months of this year or seven percent more compared to the 44,224 in the same period in 2009. "The impact of the cancellations from Hong Kong may not be that big in number as of this time but if more cancellations take place on a regular basis, then surely, our tourism industry will be affected adversely," underlined Montecillo. To cushion the impact of the travel ban issued by the Hong Kong government, Montecillo said she will meet the private sector and other tourism stakeholders to review security policies being implemented in tours and other activities that involved tourists.