Published on : Thursday, February 13, 2020
He will be traveling to Boracay, Cebu, and Bohol, according to the Philippines News Agency report.
Tourism Secretary, Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, talked about the strategies to maintain the travel sector of the country buoyant in a meeting with Duterte on Monday. In that meeting, one of the key strategies aimed on was prioritizing domestic tourism to offset losses from China.
“We just had a meeting with President Duterte together with Cebu Pacific, AirAsia, Philippine Airlines, the Philippine Hotel Owners Association and the Tourism Congress of the Philippines and the President said that he wants to start travelling around the country to show that it’s safe,” she informed the reporters during a briefing in Pasay City.
Romulo-Puyat explained that the campaign would mainly aim on Boracay, Cebu, and Bohol — destinations hugelu impacted by the drop in tourists from China and its special administrative regions due to the outbreak of 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease. The initiative is seen to roll out by next week.
Romulo-Puyat is quoted by the PNA as saying: “(The President) wants even to take commercial flight and go through the proper protocols to show that it’s safe to travel around the country,” she added.
Earlier, the President stopped the travel of international tourists coming from China with an intention to prohibit the virus from spreading in the country.
The tourism sector of Philippines fears that it could lose around USD291.71 million or about PHP14.83 billion during February 2020 because of the restrictions on travel from China.
However, Romulo-Puyat said the industry “will remain one of the top growth drivers”.
“In the coming days, the tourism sector has agreed to roll out more value-added tour packages, discounted accommodation rates, and marked down prices for domestic flights,” she concluded.
Tags: philippines tourism