Reopening of Palawan’s tourism industry

While El Nido, Coron, San Vicente, and Busuanga are now accepting tourists amidst the threat of COVID-19, Puerto Princesa City, the lone city in Palawan archipelago, is still not opening its doors yet for tourism.

The worldwide pandemic restrictions and the lack of international travelers are among the factors that the city officials consider before starting to re-open the city’s travel and tourism industry.

The city officials led by City Mayor Lucilo R. Bayron said that it will be safe to re-open the tourism industry when 70 percent herd immunity among Puerto Princesa residents is attained. The city targeted to achieve this before March 2020.

The City’s Incident Management Team (IMT) needs to come up with suitable guidelines to be followed by stakeholders, tourism and travel industry players, and concerned agencies.

This December 2021, Puerto Princesa City eyed holding various activities dubbed as “5-in-1 Paskong Masaya sa Puerto Princesa” including the opening of Balayong park, commissioning of the interactive water park, grand pyromusical display, lighting of giant Christmas tree, and Christmas concerts while enforcing strict health precautions and observance of protocols.

Gradually, this will open the city to activities that will entice not only locals but tourists as well.

The travel and tourism industry has significantly contributed to the country’s economy. In 2019, before the pandemic wreaked havoc, travel and tourism accounted for 12.7% of gross domestic product (GDP) or roughly $47.8 billion worth of goods and services. During that year, our country accommodated some 8.26 million foreign tourists who pumped $11 billion into the economy, while domestic tourism generated some $36.6 billion. In terms of employment, the industry directly employed 1.3 million Filipinos. Considering all these, it is difficult to understand on how the travel and tourism industry will recover without the resumption of travel.

In 2020, the contribution of the tourism industry to our GDP fell to 5.4 percent.

Losses are also felt for those connected to the travel and tourism industry such as tourists transport operators, hotels and resorts, boat operators, tour guides, restaurants, souvenir shops, spas, and entertainment venues. Aid provided by the government was insignificant, in the form of longer credit terms for permits, tax breaks, and financial aid.

Pandemic-induced travel bans have caused layoff and business closures, and subsequently, untold suffering among tourism stakeholders.

One of the solutions seen to help reopen the travel and tourism industry is the IATA Travel Pass, a mobile app that helps travelers to store and manage their verified certifications for COVID-19 tests or vaccines. It is more secure and efficient than current paper processes used to manage health requirements. This is important given the potentially enormous scale of testing or vaccine verifications that will need to be securely managed.

This will then bring ease among tourists and travelers.

Although IATA is targeting to roll out its travel pass by the end of 2021 or December 31, it is safe to assume that the travel pass will be adopted by most countries by the 3rd or fourth quarter of 2022. Hence, the travel and tourism industry will likely bounce back in 2023.

This gives us hope that domestic and international travel will open sooner. With this, the country’s premier tourism destinations including Palawan, whose tourism industry was badly hit by the pandemic, can begin rebuilding their lives and the local economies again.