Local tourism execs
report rising arrivals
CORTES, Bohol, Feb 16 (PIA) –The numbers are rising.
From 187 tourist arrivals between November 15 when Bohol opened its borders to tourists attending meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) as well as small events like reunions, anniversaries, birthdays and the like, to December 20, the numbers rose by 294 percent, data shared by the Bohol Tourism Office (BTO) revealed.
Bohol then adopted the tourism bubble concept, when the tourists who prove to be negative of the virus can come to Bohol, travel together in a bubble, does not allow other joiners in their group and driven off to destinations by a Department of Tourism accredited transport service provider on a tour arranged by another DOT accredited tour operator.
During such, they are never allowed to make unscheduled stops and stray from their provided itinerary.
According to a BTO executive Joanne Mendez Pinat, in a matter of half a month after that, Bohol accepted 540 tourists, one she credits when Governor Arthur Yap issued an Executive Order which also allows to Bohol not just MICE and events attendees but free and independent travellers (FITs) as well.
Speaking at the weekly Kapihan sa PIA, Pinat, along with Bohol Tourism Office Josephine Cabarrus shared significant data, although the initial opening salvo also included hyped activities that featured the Department of Tourism (DOT) Tourism Promotions Board’s hybrid Philippine Tourism Exchange (PHITex) which brought in tourism stakeholders from the Philippines and abroad.
The next month also brought in tourism industry workers, tour agents, travel operators and tourism allied service providers on a new round of familiarization tours to Bohol to simulate how it would be to travel in the next or the new normal.
Between January 1 to 31, tourist arrivals reached 538, just two short of the previous count, but Bohol tourism stakeholders remained optimistic that the figures would still bear promise especially when indications of Bohol further opening up and relaxing its travel measures to tourists and guests came up.
Within the moth too, from requiring tourists and FITs a negative COVID test results via Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction, confirmed hotel and accommodation establishment booking here in Bohol and a Bohol Quick Response Code after registering at the Bohol tourism portal, local authorities decided on allowing tourists to stay much longer if the can present another negative for COVID test result after their fifth day here.
In fact, to further sweeten the deal, and with the recent developments in saliva RT PCR, Bohol green-lighted the use of the much cheaper COVID diagnostic, in another Executive Order which the governor issued a couple of weeks ago.
With that, between February 1 to 11, tourism arrival moved up a bit in just a little over a week with 636, Pinat shared.
The figure looked even better with two long holidays: Chinese New Year capped with a Valentines Day and EDSA Revolution Anniversary by the end of the month.
According to Pinat, last February 12 alone, Bohol recorded over 200 tourist arrivals. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)
EVERYTHING WOULD BE PREBOOKED. BTO Josephine Cabarrus stressed that even with local tourists like Boholanos, getting to bubble sites need prebooking as this helps site manager control the number of people as per UBE Seal conditions and social distancing measures. (PIABohol)
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