Improving air connectivity to boost tourism–puyat
IMPROVING air connectivity between tourism markets and destinations will help restore tourism to pre-pandemic levels. In a news statement, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat said, “having world-class air, land and sea infrastructure such as the Clark International Airport (CIA) will help Philippine tourism bounce back sooner.”
She joined President Duterte and other Cabinet members at Saturday’s inspection of the newly completed second passenger terminal of the CIA. The P12.55-billion project was an initiative under the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program.
Visitor arrivals at CIA plunged by 75 percent in 2020 to 494,387 as Covid-19 travel restrictions continued to hamper inbound tourism. Arrivals from January to July 2021 were at 51,584, according to data provided by the Department of Tourism (DOT). No comparative data was provided for the first half of 2020.
Tourist receipts were also estimated by the DOT at P6.23 billion in 2020, a 68-percent decrease from the P19.66 billion recorded at the Clark Freeport Zone in 2019. Estimated tourist receipts from January to July 2021 were P2.32 billion, but no comparative data was provided for the same period in 2020.
Not foreign tourists
BASES Conversion and Development Authority president and chief executive officer Vivencio “Vince” B. Dizon clarified to the Businessmirror, however, that no foreign tourists have arrived at Clark. “Foreign tourists are still prohibited nationwide, not just in Clark,” he stressed.
He considered the possibility that overseas Filipinos and overseas Filipino workers arriving via Clark tick the “tourist” box in the Bureau of Immigration’s arrival cards, thinking they will be in the country temporarily. “I’ll have to check, but most likely that’s what happened,” he said.
Data from the Clark International
Airport Corp. (CIAC) showed, of the total visitors in 2020, 262,578 were
domestic passengers, while 231,809 were international passengers.
Built by Megawide CORP.-GMR Construction Joint Venture Inc., the same consortium that completed the new passenger terminal at Mactan International Airport in Cebu, the new CIA passenger terminal is designed to accommodate as much as many as 12 million passengers every year.
The CIA will be operated and managed by the Luzon International Premiere Airport Development Corp. (Lipad), a consortium between Changi Airports Philippines Pte. Ltd., Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings Inc., and Philippine Airport Ground Support Solutions (PAGSS) Inc.
No date has been given when the new passenger terminal will actually be open to the public.
Prior to the pandemic, the Clark airport served 19 domestic and 14 international destinations, with 686 weekly flights by 18 airlines.
Meanwhile, Romulo Puyat said, “Boosting air connectivity is classified as one of the priorities of the DOT under the National Tourism Development Plan for 2016 to 2022, hence the significance of the completion of Clark Airport’s new terminal building.”