280 Sustainable Tourism
For the hotel and restaurant industry, the same survey showed that a substantial number of respondent establishments (44 percent) admit to the utilization of flexible employment arrangements among other mechanisms to cope with globalization. Owing to the Asian economic crisis, unemployment worsened as more firms resorted to closures, layoffs, and retrenchments (Ofreneo 1999). Although international media reports in 1997 claimed that the Philippines was one of the least affected among ASEAN countries compared to Indonesia, South Korea, and Thailand, repercussions on the Philippine labor market were nevertheless significant. Data gathered by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) revealed that the number of establishments reporting closures and retrenchments trebled from 1997 to 1998. Displaced workers, on the other hand, doubled within the same period. Respondent companies cited factors relating to the economic crisis. These included lack of market, redundancy, high cost of production, peso depreciation, lack of capital, reorganization and financial losses. Flexible work arrangements became commonplace in many Philippine businesses in the late 1990s. A survey conducted by the DOLE showed that the percentage of workers employed under flexible labor contracts (parttime, contractual, and casual) reached almost 21 percent of the total workforce in 1997 as against 14 percent in 1994. As companies continue to feel the effect of the Asian financial crisis and reel from the currency turmoil that is expected to drag the economy to a lower growth path even beyond the new millennium, more workers are expected to lose their jobs or be subjected to various coping mechanisms that are undertaken by establishments to survive. The Philippine tourism industry was adversely affected by the impact of the Asian financial crisis. Although air visitor arrivals was maintained at the 2 million mark in the period 1997-1999, there was a noticeable shift in the type of visitors. A drop in arrivals for holiday, business and convention purposes, those more likely to stay in tourist accommodation establishments, was recorded at 15 percent, 5.8 percent, and 5.9 percent respectively. A 28.6 percent increase in arrivals with the purpose of visiting friends and relatives offset the decline in the aforementioned categories. However, this category of arrivals comprised mostly of balikbayan (returnees) and Filipino overseas contract workers who are more likely to stay with families or friends, hence with no perceived significant impact on demand for tourist accommodation establishments and related tourist services. In 1998 occupancy rate among accommodation establishments declined by 17.66 percent from the previous year. This can be attributed to the increase in rooms for sale arising from additional hotels in operation, coupled by a slowdown in visitor arrivals to the country. Occupancy rose by 4 percent in