Travel agencies urged to focus on inbound services

Travel agencies should cater to more inbound tourist services to mitigate the loss of passport appointment slots.

Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) president Marlene Jante said travel agencies should work alongside the Department of Tourism’s campaign to attract more tourists to come into the country, rather than focusing on travelers going outbound.

“Actually, we are supporting the DOT campaign to get more inbound travelers,” Jante said.

At present, travel agencies do not have access to passport renewal applications, as the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) suspended the 500 daily slots allotted for travel agencies in July last year.

Travel agencies claim they were told the removal of the online appointment slots of travel agencies was temporary as the DFA said it was in the process of cleaning its passport appointment system. The DFA, however, said they are still accepting application from travel agencies for accreditation.

Last week, several travel agency associations called out the DFA, urging the return of their passport appointment slots.

Network of Independent Travel Agencies vice president Angel Ramos Bognot echoed Jante’s sentiments, noting that 90 percent of her business is focused on inbound services.

Bognot said some travel agencies are starting to feel the impact of the lost slots, particularly those who are focused on passport services.

She said that there are some travel agencies are shutting down, since their major services are passport processing.

Jante earlier said the suspension of the passport appointment system resulted in loss of business for some travel agencies.

“It is a fact that 15 percent of the revenue stream of some of our members comes from their passport processing services,” Jante said.

She added travel agencies are still waiting for the DFA to return their access for passport processing services. Jante said it has been more than five months since the DFA issued the suspension order, which was supposed to be only temporary. –