Cebu City – Tourism industry stakeholders remain calm and even forecasted positive growth in the industry despite the onset of the dry spell brought about by the El Niño phenomenon that has already affected farm lands around the country.

“The dry spell could even force tourists, locals and foreigners, to head to the different beaches of the country this early so they can frolic in the waters to cool down as the temperature rises,” said Robert Lim Joseph, chairman of the National Association of Independent Travel Agencies (Naitas), the largest organization of tour operators in the country.

“The industry is not panicking and we are even positive that more tourists will be going to the different beach resorts because of the hot weather,” Joseph said.

The industry has noted a rising number of tourists going to the different resorts in the country, especially in Cebu, even as summer will officially start on April yet. Hotels and resorts in Cebu have also prepared generator sets to cope with the power demand of their facilities in case of brownouts.

“While the use of generator sets is expensive and is harmful to the environment, hotels and resorts have no option because tourists are coming in this early and besides, the power interruptions in Cebu do not take more than an hour,” Joseph said.

Meanwhile, expansion of the domestic and international passenger terminals at the Mactan – Cebu International Airport amounting to at least P178 million is now underway, airport authorities announced recently.

The expansion, which will cover approximately 2,500 square meters of the domestic and international terminals, is expected to be completed by September 2011. A total of 6,000 more passengers are expected to be accommodated by the expanded terminals.

MCIAA said the budget for the project, which has a contract cost of P178,601,051.97, will be taken from the revenue of the airport. MCIAA said it has hit its target revenue from domestic and international cargo and passengers for the first two months of 2010.

In February alone, the airport earned P96.3 million from non-aeronautical fees amounting to R26.6 million, bank and cash management amounting to P1.8 million, and aeronautical fees amounting to P67.6 million.