Some three hundred seventy-four small and big accommodation establishments in the city were already given the certificate of accreditation or certificate of compliance by the Cordillera office of the Department of Tourism (DOT-CAR) to cater to the accommodation requirements of visitors that will be allowed to travel for leisure and business purposes.
Supervising City Tourism Operations Officer Engr. Aloysius C. Mapalo stated that the accredited accommodation establishments include big and small hotels, transient houses and even home stays to ensure their compliance to the basic health and safety protocols in providing the accommodation requirements of visitors.
He claimed that the number of accommodation establishments that had been issued by the DOT-CAR with the certificate of accreditation or certificate of compliance is still low compared to the over 1,000 transient houses in the different parts of the city that had operated during the -pre-pandemic.
The city tourism officer stipulated that the DOT-CAR and the local government continue to conduct the required ocular inspection of the accommodation establishments that are applying for the issuance of the certificate of accreditation or certificate of compliance to ensure that the said businesses will not breach the existing minimum public health standards during their operations to prevent another surge in the number of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the city.
According to him, the continuous issuance of the required certificate of accreditation or certificate of compliance to accommodation establishments applying for the same is part of the ongoing efforts of the concerned government agencies and the local government for the gradual and safe revival of the heavily impacted industry and the overall economy of the city.
Mapalo admitted that the city’s effort to bring back the vibrance of the local tourism industry suffered a serious setback when the National Capital Region (NCR) plus bubble was placed under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) several months ago where the city realized zero tourist arrivals from the end of March up to April 12, 2021.
However, he revealed that tourism arrivals started to increase to more than 500 at the end of April and even increased at least three folds by the end of May as there were some 1,400 visitors that were documented.
From June 1-13, 2021, Mapalo emphasized that there were already more than 2,900 tourist arrivals in the city following the lowering of the community quarantine status of the NCR plus bubble as bulk of the city’s tourist arrivals come from the Metro Manila area and its neighboring regions.
He also explained that some accommodation establishments reported that because of the sudden increase in tourist arrivals in the city over the past several weeks, the same were able to reach their required 50 percent capacity based on prevailing community quarantine guidelines that had been crafted by the inter-agency task force for the management of emerging infectious diseases. By Dexter A. See
