Island destinations gear up for entry of foreign tourists

KEY leisure destinations in the country are now stepping up their vaccination of hospitality frontliners and residents to enable them to open up to more tourists, especially from abroad.

The province of Bohol, for instance, started vaccinating management and employees of hotels and resorts in Panglao Island over the weekend, after receiving 10,000 vaccine doses from the national government.

The shipment of 5,000 doses of Sputnik V and 5,000 doses of Sinovac were personally received by Bohol Gov. Arthur Yap on June

16.

Boracay Island, the crown jewel of Philippine tourism, has also been vaccinating its residents since May

26. Malay Mayor Frolibar Bautista and private stakeholders earlier requested the national government and the Department of Tourism (DOT) for vaccines good for 40,000 islanders.

In his brief remarks at the vaccination of tourism frontliners on June 18 at the Bellevue Resort, Yap said, “Our message to everyone is to come to Bohol and enjoy tourism. Every tourist who comes to Bohol will help our economy and livelihood. That’s why we are aiming to be the first province to be totally vaccinated for all tourism frontliners, because we want to open up to foreign tourists as well.”

He recalled what happened last Holy Week when guests from the National Capital Region (NCR) had to cancel their bookings in Bohol’s resorts and hotels, because of the surge in Covid-19 cases. Vaccination will enable the province to “open to foreign capital so we are not totally dependent on NCR,” he stressed.

The governor had earlier requested for 70,000 vaccine doses from the national government to be able to initially vaccinate Panglao Island frontliners.

In a recent tourism forum, Yap said the Sangguniang Province actually approved a P100-million standby fund to purchase vaccines but he was told by NTF Carlito Galvez Jr. to wait for allocations from the national government instead. (See, “NTF’S Galvez discourages Bohol from buying own Covid vaccines,” in the Businessmirror, June 14, 2021.) In 2019, Bohol received some 1.6 million visitor arrivals from domestic and foreign markets.

Leeds Trompeta, general manager of Amorita Resort in Panglao Island, told the Businessmirror, “The initiative of [Tourism] Secretary [Bernadette] Romulo Puyat and Gov. Yap to vaccinate tourism frontliners in Bohol is a step in the right direction to restart our industry in the province. With Manila opening up travel, we have observed a marked increase in arrivals and with our associates fully vaccinated, it will provide additional confidence to travellers on top of the health protocols we have already in place.”

Romulo Puyat said she endorsed Boracay’s request for 40,000 vaccines to NTF’S Galvez. In a recent town hall meeting between islanders and the Aklan provincial health office, Dr. Leslie Ann Luces said their goal is to achieve “100-percent herd immunity” for all residents and workers of Boracay. The island’s population varies anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 because some workers go home everyday to the mainland.

The vaccines currently being distributed to Boracaynons come from the Aklan provincial government’s allocation from the national government—sinovac and Astrazeneca.

Businessman and Compliance Association of Boracay President Virgilio Sacdalan said, “If tourism frontliners and the community here on the island will be vaccinated, it will create a bubble immediately, considering we have a small population of 40,000.”

He added, “We can start accepting international direct flights [and] this will help our tourism industry bounce back.” Prior to the pandemic, Boracay received some 2 million foreign and domestic visitor arrivals.

Romulo Puyat has been pushing to include more tourism frontliners in the vaccination priority list, to help the industry rebound. The Philippine Statistics Authority last week reported the tourism direct gross value added slumped by 61.2 percent to P973.31 billion in 2020, due to pandemic travel restrictions. The sector’s contribution to the local economy’s output was just 5.4 percent, compared to 12.8 percent in 2019.