Baguio City’s tourism industry is now feeling the brunt of the Coronavirus Infectious Disease (COVID-19) outbreak following the successive lay off of workers in the hotel and restaurant sector due to the drastic drop in their supposed sales over the past several weeks.
Evangeline Payno, Special Assistant to the General Manager of the Baguio Country Club (BCC), said that more than 100 agency workers that are hired during peak tourism months will no longer be called to report for work considering the reported cancellation of reservations in the club following the cancellation of the Panagbenga, the city’s major crowd drawing event, due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
She admitted that the city’s tourism industry, especially the hotel and restaurant sector, is now feeling the serious negative impact of the COVID outbreak because aside from the cancellation of the reservations, there are no more bookings that are being made by interested foreign and domestic visitors in the accommodation establishments.
The BCC official claimed that the agency workers are being tapped by the management to augment the regular personnel during peak tourism season considering the unprecedented bookings but this time, they are no longer needed considering the absence of customers due to the cancellation of reservations.
According to her, the city’s tourism was able to achieve its peak during the Yuletide Season and was supposed to continue during the Panagbenga and summer seasons but no longer be the case considering the COVID-19 outbreak that has taken its toll on the global tourism industry over the past several weeks.
Payno disclosed that local tourism stakeholders will be banking on the proposed recovery plan being initiated by the tourism department once the situation normalizes to prevent the occurrence of a worst-case scenario which should not happen in the first place with the observance of the proposed precautionary measures.
Some hotel and restaurant owners, members of the transport sector, market vendors among others that rely heavily on residents tourists to sustain their operations revealed that there had been a significant decline in their customers that affected their financial projections that is why some of them have embraced strategies to ensure their sustained operations until things get better in the coming months.
A number of establishment owners also claimed that most of their workers expressed their willingness to render volunteer work in their work places for 2 to 3 days without pay so that they to prevent them from being laid off in their present work to guarantee that they will have the needed income that will sustain the living condition of their families.
Payno added that accommodation establishments in the city will be coming out with the needed promotions in the coming months to entice people to travel to the city and visit the scenic destinations once the situation will normalize to help the tourism industry recover from the current slump that it is experiencing due to the COVID-19 scare.
She asserted that the local tourism industry will have to make do with the present situation and await whatever developments that will happen in the global arena on the COVID-19 outbreak so that they will be able to craft strategic programs to recover from the present state of the industry.
By Hent
Photo by Armando M. Bolislis
