BM Villamor urges PTDC to convene

stakeholders on new transport rates

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, (PIA)—For the stability of the entire tourism ecosystem here in Bohol, a lady legislator has called on the Provincial Tourism Development Council (PTDC), to immediately convene and rule on an issue that has the potential to explode into a tourism headache: price fragmentation.

Rising to the occasion when the still increasing prices of fuel and the consequent increase in tourism tourist transport rates, service fees and charges, Board Member Jiselle Rae Villamor calls on governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado, and his private sector counterpart of the PTDC to convene the council and start the consultative processes where all tourism stakeholders can join in the decisions on a clear, official and publicly issued price guide for all tourism transport services at the very least.

Villamor informed the Sangguniang Panlalawigan in session this week that there is already a proposed increase in tourist transport rates, a proposal for a 40 percent increase in transport rates, and yet another proposal to only add the surcharges of fuel increase to the transport rates.

At the outset, we recognize and empathize with our transport groups, who just like all of us are facing real and immediate pressures particularly in the sharp rise on fuel costs, she said.

She cited the daily operational realities that shakes sustainability of operations and livelihood.

On the other hand, she also took on the situation of tour operators and tourism partners who face the uncertainty of pricing on their confirmed bookings and the risk of losing tourist trust.

While she shared that there has already been a resolution among stakeholders, she also hailed the PTDC, as a body which is molded under the Bohol Tourism Code, which is mandated to facilitate stakeholders’ consultations to agree on reasonable rates and adjustments based on inflation, service improvements and sustainability and officially issue the new price advisory to ensure pricing alignment.

She shared her fears that without the official, transparent and consultative price guide, tourists are exposed to inconsistent and unpredictable changes.

This is not the kind of tourism that want to promote, Villamor stressed.

To the issue at hand, she hopes the PTDC can urgently convene all stakeholders, translate any agreement into a clear, written and official price guide which is transparent, reasonable and anchored on actual costs drivers like fuel and come up with a public issuance to guide everyone to a single direction.

She also resolved to urge the Provincial Tourism Council to immediately issue a clear, official and publicly disseminated price guide for tourist transport services, pursuant to the Provincial Tourism Code to prevent price fragmentation and ensure order in a deregulated tourism environment. (PIABohol)

CLEAR PUBLICLY ISSUED GUIDE. Amidst the continually rising costs of fuel which affects the costs of local tours, BM Villamor has urged the governor to convene the Provincial Tourism Development Council to start consultations and come out with a reasonable, transparent transport rates to guide the local stakeholders and deter price fragmentation, which bears ill to local tourism. (PIAbohol)