BAGUIO RELAUNCHES ONLINE TOURIST REGISTRATION APP

The local government will be relaunching the Visitors Information and Travel Assistance (Visita) registration platform as a tourist assistance application to further boost tourist arrivals in the Summer Capital.

Supervising Tourism Operations Officer Engr. Aloysius Mapalo stated that the platform is currently being populated with accredited tourism-related establishments, accommodation facilities, tour operators, restaurants, and tourist destinations, among others, that will make it easier for visitors to navigate and schedule their visits to the city.

He noted that the application will allow tourists to generate a travel itinerary tailored to fit their interests as a guide in their stay in the city and to ensure they are provided with the appropriate accommodation by the establishments they select from the list.

Earlier, the Visita registration platform had been used by the city government to regulate the entry of tourists into the city at the height of the implementation of the series of lockdowns due to the surges in Covid-19 cases over the past 2 years.

The city tourism officer urged visitors planning to spend their break in the city to still register in the Visita app because accommodation establishments still require their guests to show their respective QR codes upon check-in as part of the existing Covid protocols.

He pointed out that the city government wants to ascertain the number of tourists visiting the city periodically but this is not possible because of the presence of daytime visitors who do not avail of accommodation establishments, which is why they are not part of the figures being declared by the city, especially on the number of tourist arrivals.

Mapalo called the owners of tourism-related establishments operating in the different parts of the city to register their businesses in the Visita app so that tourists can patronize their establishments.