00:00The Department of Tourism and the private sector gathered to celebrate this weekend's celebration.
00:11Meanwhile, the hotel industry has rumors about online booking scammers in hotels and resorts.
00:18Jesse Atienza of PTV Cebu has the details.
00:23It's a warm welcome with a song of welcome to the passengers who arrived at the arrival area of Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
00:33One of the passengers who arrived from California is Mary Cleo.
00:38She intended to go home but she slept with her family.
00:42Very nice. Oh, it feels like really home when you guys did that. That's so nice.
00:47The rest of my family are already here.
00:49Ah, so they're already here?
00:50Yes, they're already here.
00:51How many days have we been here?
00:53We're just here for two weeks, just for the Sinolog.
00:55According to the Department of Tourism Region 7, the Cebuano culture is now a part of the warm welcome to the visitors and to those who are returning home.
01:05That is our culture. And we've been doing this Balik-Cebu.
01:09The Department of Tourism supports the program of Balik-Cebu Committee through Ayala Center 23 years ago.
01:17So it's our 23rd years.
01:19The warm hospitality, that is our culture.
01:22That we always welcome.
01:24Not only the Balikbayans, we have also the visitors going around to any destination in the Philippines, especially Cebu.
01:33According to the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority,
01:36more than 1,000 passengers arrived in Cebu on the first day of the activity from Taipei, Incheon, and Hong Kong.
01:44They are already excited, especially as they anticipate the continued arrival of the visitors to the Sinolog this year.
01:50The airport police officers are now unified.
01:54We have first responders who are going around.
01:59The blood pressure is high.
02:01And the public affairs division of MCIAA has also asked for inquiries.
02:09The leadership of the Hotel, Resort, and Restaurant Association of Cebu Incorporated, or HRAC,
02:15is also concerned against the online scamming of hotel bookings during the Sinolog.
02:21So in Facebook, these scammers, they've copied the Facebook pages of these resorts using actual pictures.
02:30And then they say, 50% off for this period.
02:34So you can pay through this account, blah, blah, blah.
02:37And so they get their bookings.
02:39Of course, when the guests arrive at the resort, there's no booking for them.
02:42HRAC is also advising the authorities to immediately enter and catch those behind the online scamming
02:49in the bookings that victimize tourists and visitors.
