The Palawan Tourism Council officially kicks off today, Sept 14 their “Palawan Muna” campaign across all social media platforms, encouraging local tourists and residents to see and explore the beautiful sceneries, and taste the rich flavors of the province.
Under the campaign is Bayani basket, a memorabilia full of products from different municipality of Palawan that will be available in different establishments, to which the portion of the earnings will be allotted for Bayani Garden, another project that will give vegetable and fruit seeds for farmers.
“We are encouraging them to really travel, and really see Palawan already, under this program, this project we are opening a facebook, IG account, twitter and social media accounts to really just show the beauty and character of Palawan,” PTC President Rix Rafols said.
The campaign includes a print copy of Tourism Related Establishment Guide to new normal handbook that the Council prepared during this pandemic period. This is done with the help of Palawan Council for Sustainable Development, Provincial Tourism Office, Air Asia, and Gov. Jose Ch. Alvarez.
Rafols said that the campaign didn’t include travel and tour packages for now, but it will run up to 2022 under Rafols term, and soon they will add travel agencies to offer packages. He said that LGUs and the council didn’t provide funds for this campaign.
“For now the campaign is focused locally, local lang po tayo, Palawan Muna is a campaign focused for all Palawenos encouraging our Palawenos to go around Palawan, experience natin ‘yung iba’t ibang munisipyo, experience natin ‘yung iba’t ibang pagkain all across Palawan, hindi pa tayo open for domestic tourism or domestic tourist, we are only encouraging local tourists at this point,” Rafols said.
With this campaign the PTC clarified that its safety they are prioritizing not just travelling per se, it is always the Municipal Government’s mandate to welcome local tourists in their area with all the safety protocols needed to follow.
“Bago tayo mag travel, bago tayo mag ikot sa iba’t ibang munisipyo, lets us try to check kung pwede po, andyan ang midya and the tourism offices to let us know what’s happening, right now a lot of the places are opening here in Puerto Princesa, here in the different municipalities across Palawan nag-oopen na po, ‘yun ang ginagawa natin we are encouraging people to really go and see Palawan again,” Rafols added.
During the said launching today at the VJR Hall of the Provincial Capitol, Provincial Tourism Officer Maribelle Buni reported that there are 18,000 displaced workers estimated affected in this pandemic here in Palawan, with about 6, 000 businesses from 6 municipalities directly suffer.