Despite the eased requirement for non-essential travels here, the city government said it will maintain the 3,000 per day limit in tourist arrivals.
Aileen Refuerzo, chief of the Public Information Office (PIO)-Baguio, on Thursday said the limit is to prevent the possible untoward incidents that will trigger another surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases.
She said since the city opened its borders to tourists in September 2020, it has continued to observe its rules slowly and safely opens the tourism industry.
She said online registration of tourists via the “visit” application has never reached the limit.
Refuerzo said based on the record from the city tourism office, that daily tourist arrival during weekdays in June only reached some 1,500 to 1,800 while tourist arrivals during weekends were a little higher.
She said the arrivals do not exceed the prescribed limit even if the city has started accepting visitors from the National Capital Region (NCR) Plus bubble, where the bulk of the tourists come from.
“The city deems it proper to maintain the same limitation until such time that there will be compelling reasons to increase the limit,” she said.
She said the city’s management committee composed of the executive branch of the local government maintains that there is a need to gradually open its tourism which has positive impact on the economy.
“We also do not want to stress our frontline workers in the health sector who never stops performing their function to protect us all,” she said.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong has repeatedly said tourist arrivals are not sufficient to allow the industries within the sector to fully operate and start regaining their losses but the gradual and safe revival will give a balance to the economy and health amid the pandemic.
Tourists are required to register in the city’s online registration platform, visita.baguio.gov.ph where a QR (quick response) code will be generated.
The QR code will be presented at the quarantine control checkpoints.
To date, some 374 hotels and transient houses were issued certificates of accreditation and certificates of compliance by the regional office of the Department of Tourism allowing these establishments to accept tourists who are allowed to enter Baguio
Source: Philippines News Agency
