BAGUIO CITY – The city will still be maintaining the limit of tourist arrivals to a maximum of three thousand daily prevent the occurrence of untoward incidents that will trigger another surge in the number of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.
Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong admitted that the tourist arrivals in the city since June 1, 2021 did not yet exceed the prescribed 3,000 daily limit, thus, the need to maintain the same limitation for the meantime until such time that there will be compelling reasons to increase the limit.
He disclosed that daily tourist arrivals during week days only reached some 1,500 to 1,800 while tourist arrivals during weekends stayed at around 5,000 which was still within the prescribed limit.
The local chief executive pointed out that the imposition of the limit on daily tourist arrivals is part of the city government’s efforts to gradually and safely revive the heavily impacted city tourism industry and to avoid the occurrence of untoward incidents that could cause sudden surges in the number of COVID-19 cases and compromise the local health care system and stress the frontliners.
According to him the city government in partnership with the concerned stakeholders do not want the gains of the efforts to revive the local tourism industry to be ruined by untoward incidents so the prevailing situation in the city in terms of the daily COVID cases is always being assessed and evacuated.
Magalong claimed that the present daily tourist arrivals in the city is not yet sufficient to allow the gradual and safe revival of the city’s tourism industry since tourism is one of the local economic drivers.
He asserted that the daily tourist arrivals did not yet exceed the prescribed limit even if the city started accepting visitors from the National Capital Region (NCR) plus bubble where bulk of the tourist arrivals come from.
Tourists wanting to visit the city and enjoy spending their well-deserved break in the country’s undisputed Summer Capital are advised to register in the city’s registration platform, visita.baguio.gov.ph, and for them to present to the quarantine control checkpoints and the central triage their respective QR-coded tourist pass and confirmed booking in the various accredited tourist establishments as proof of their stay in the city.
At present, some 374 hotels and transient houses in the city were issued certificates of accreditation and certificates of compliance by the regional office of the tourism department that will allow them to accept tourists who are allowed to come up to the city based on existing guidelines crafted by the inter-agency task force for the management of emerging infectious diseases.
However, the city government and the tourist department are still continuously monitoring the compliance of the tourism-related establishments to the stringent rules and regulations governing their operation for the possible revival of the heavily impacted local tourism industry. By Dexter A. See
