Exchange of tourists between provinces to boost domestic tourism

MANILA, Philippines — A cross-border exchange of leisure travelers from the provinces of Western Visayas, driven by the reopening of Boracay, is a good move for the takeoff of the domestic tourism market in the country, according to an industry group.

“If we could come up with coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 protocols for province to province – meaning to say not only those from Iloilo, Capiz or Aklan would go to Boracay but vice versa – there could already be a cross-border exchange of leisure travelers,” Philippine Tour Operators Association (PHILTOA) president Cesar Cruz said in an interview with CNN Philippines.

“This is a good move,”he said.

On Thursday, the Boracay Interagency Task Force approved the recommendation of Aklan Gov. Florencio Miraflores to gradually open up Boracay for tourism starting June 16, with only tourists from the Western Visayas region allowed, particularly the provinces of Aklan, Iloilo, Antique, Capiz and Negros Occidental.

Cruz said the exchange of tourists between provinces would lead to the creation of green lane circuits, which are basically destinations in the country that have opened up for tourism and are ready with the protocols.

“Out of this green lane circuits, we can already create packages and the inter-travel within these green lane travel bubbles can already be started,”Cruz earlier said.

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said earlier that the DOT is eyeing to create “travel bubbles” in Philippine islands that have zero or few cases of COVID-19 to revive tourism in those areas.

“Since we have 7,641 islands, we can actually look at particular islands that have zero COVID or practically very minimal cases. We can first see if it’s safe for domestic tourists to go to that place with almost no COVID, and eventually we can open it to tourists,” Puyat said during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay webinar on Wednesday.

Puyat cited the case of New Zealand and Australia, where a travel bubble is placed between the two countries that have zero or close to no COVID-19 cases.

“We were talking to our Australian partners last week. We were telling them that there’s an option for them to fly from Australia to let’s say Bohol or direct to Kalibo,” Puyat said, adding that both Bohol and Boracay have minuscule incidence of COVID-19.

“The Philippines is lucky because we have 7,641 islands and our tourist spots have practically no COVID cases, or if there is any, it comes only in single digits,” Puyat said.

In an earlier webinar, STR Asia Pacific area director Jesper Palmqvist said the Philippines has the potential to create travel bubbles, which bodes well for the recovery of the country’s tourism sector.

“The Philippines is unique because you can create these travel bubbles within the country and see which regions are safer and better equipped to do so,” Palmqvist said.

The tourism industry, a key driver of the Philippine economy, is among the hardest hit sectors by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data from DOT shows that international arrivals for January to May dropped by 62.21 percent to 1.3 million arrivals from 3.49 million arrivals in the same period last year.

Estimated inbound tourism revenues during the plunged 60.56 percent to P81.05 billion from P205.50 billion in the same period a year ago.