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“USE a mask, when it makes sense.” This was the statement from Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat on Thursday after some confusion arose regarding the guidelines for tourists visiting the island of Boracay, which opened Thursday to accept guests even from community quarantine areas. general (GCQ).
“Of course when you walk on the beach [wear a mask]. But if nothing– swimming you, maybe you can delete the mask because you might even die and drown, right?? [But if you’re swimming, you can take off your mask, because you might die and you’ll drown because of it, right?]”She said, trying to keep a straight face, in an online press.
Last week at the ANC, Malay’s acting mayor Frolibar Bautista said that tourists in Boracay must now wear “three-piece” bathing suits – that is, a bikini and a mask. In addition to swimming, tourists can also enjoy scuba diving, paragliding and island hopping activities, and even banana boat rides, he said at Thursday’s briefing from Crimson Boracay. While the bars are open, only two drinks are allowed per customer.
Only seven tourists arrived in Boracay on Thursday, aboard a Cebu Pacific Airways flight from Manila. “Today we have seven arrivals, but we expect more to arrive en masse during Undas [All Saints’ Day/All Souls’ Day]”The DOT chief said she was supposed to be on the island, but ironically, she spoke to the Manila media, after her personal physician directed her to self-quarantine. Although she tested negative for an RT-PCR test on Monday, she belatedly discovered that she had been exposed to a person positive for Covid, she said.
Romulo Puyat added that, despite the minimal arrivals on Thursday, the government will have time to “test the protocols and recalibrate accordingly.” The acceptance of more tourists on the island “is a crucial first step” for tourism to recover “because many people have lost their jobs” and helps to reactivate the economy.
“What could be a better way to announce the revival of Philippine tourism than the reopening of the world-renowned island of Boracay?” she stressed.
Three big airlines are cautiously mounting flights to Caticlan, the gateway to Boracay, and will add flights as needed.
(See, “Boracay Tourists Don’t Need PNP to Travel Well”, in BusinessMirror, September 30, 2020.)
Tourists to Boracay must submit a negative RT-PCR result, taken at least 48 hours prior to departure, a completed health declaration form that can be found on the Aklan government website, and a confirmed reservation with a hotel. DOT accredited. Each visitor authorized to travel to the island will receive a unique personal QR code for tracking.
But Romulo Puyat emphasized that “tourists must be in strict quarantine immediately after their RT-PCR test and until the moment they travel to the island. This is to help ensure that they will remain Covid-free before visiting Boracay. “
There are 204 accredited lodging establishments in Boracay, equivalent to 4,474 rooms available for reservation. The DOT chief said the island’s carrying capacity is still at 19,125 tourists at any given time, “but we’ll see if we should reduce this” due to Covid-19 health and safety restrictions.
Boracay, considered the jewel in the crown of Philippine tourism, received 307,338 visitors from January to March this year, 40 percent less than in the same period in 2019. Of the total, 145,658 were foreigners, according to data from the DOT Western Visayas, with tourists from Japan. accounting for 58,511; China 40.73; the United States 6,048; Russia 4,249 and the United Kingdom 3,767 in the lead.
Similarly, total revenue for the first quarter of the year fell 44 percent to P8.7 billion.
