BAGUIO CITY — The All Saints’ Day celebration here, which fell on a Sunday, proved to be the turning point for the local tourism industry, which was downed by the onslaught of typhoons “Ondoy,” “Pepeng” and “Ramil” over the past several weeks, as thousands of people who have departed ones buried in the various cemeteries in this mountain resort city and nearby Benguet province, took the risk of spending the prolonged weekend with their loved ones.

Despite negative reports on the devastation suffered by the city, people from Metro Manila and the lowlands motored to the city passing through the newly opened Bued River Bridge in Sison, Pangasinan and along Marcos Highway and Kennon Road to prove the critics wrong, saying that their six-hour travel is just normal for an ordinary motorist just to enjoy the cool and romantic weather of the city.

The Baguio Public Cemetery and several other private cemeteries around the city as well as the La Trinidad Public Cemetery were filled with thousands of individuals who paid respect to their departed loved ones and such places were again filled up with colorful flowers and lighted candles which were laid on top of the tombs.

The attendance to the public and private cemeteries was just concrete pieces of evidence that life in the city which was heavily devastated by recent typhoons is now back to normal.

Last Wednesday, the temperature in the city dropped to as low as 12.4 degrees Celsius, one of the lowest recorded temperatures this year, which attracted lowlanders and foreign tourists to come rushing to the city to experience the cool weather which served as the primary tourist attraction in the city.