Tourism peaks for Yuletide
TOURISTS will be welcomed in the city for the Yuletide.
Engineer Alec Mapalo, Baguio City supervising tourism operations officer confirmed a peak in arrival to the city for the holiday season.
“Highest arrival can happen on December 23 with 843. Total for the next two weeks alone is 5,748. Accumulated tourists inside the city can peak on Dec. 26 at 3,236,” Mapalo said
Mapalo bared approved travels and potential arrivals on the coming days for December with a cumulative count of at least 1,000 a day.
Statistics from the VISITA platform show that arrivals for the month has 1,853 for
Dec. 31, Dec. 30 - 2,148, Dec, 29 - 2,144, Dec. 28 - 2,295, Dec. 27 - 2,887, Dec. 26 - 3,236, Dec. 25 - 2,888, Dec. 24 -2,699, Dec. 23 - 2,304, Dec. 22 - 1,798, Dec. 21 - 1,835, Dec. 20 - 2,021, Dec. 19 - 1,806, and Dec 18 - 1,504.
Mapalo said these days are the traditional peak season with up to 6,000 to 8,000 daily arrivals before the pandemic. Many are still doing their registration in the VISITA. All approved travels are those who registered through Baguio VISITA, entering necessary travel details and uploading required documents, including COVID test options to undertake. After review and confirmation of their travel by the VISITA team, they will be sent their QTPs (QR-coded Tourist Pass), which is required to be presented at the border and at the City Triage.”
Arrivals in the Visita platform show for Dec 31 there are 135 followed by Dec, 30 – 437, Dec. 29 – 298, Dec. 28 – 222, Dec. 27 – 394, Dec. 26 – 609, Dec. 25 – 359, Dec. 24 – 836, Dec. 23 – 843, Dec. 22 - 361, Dec. 21 – 306, Dec. 20 – 469, Dec. 19 – 635, Dec. 18 – 534.
Mapalo stressed “This number of tourists, may seem many as compared to other destinations in the country; but it's not even 10% of what we used to have, especially at this time of the year, which is our traditional peak season. So it's still a struggle for our businesses. We’re starting to cope, and hopefully starting as well to help those who had not have any source of income or livelihood for the past months.”
In a related development, Engineer Januario Borillo, chief of the traffic and transport management division of the City Engineering Office said areas now ready to accept buses and vans coming from the city include Clark, San Fernando City and Mabalacat City in Pampanga; Mariveles, Bataan; San Carlos, Villasis and Lingayen in Pangasinan; Olongapo City, Zambales; Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija; Bontoc, Mountain Province and the National Capital Region (NCR).
In a recent Octa research, Baguio returned to the high risk circle with Mankayan, in Benguet, as the only areas in Luzon, Makati City for the National Capital Region and Davao City (Davao del Sur) for the Mindanao island cluster.
Octa reported Baguio logged 16 cases a day from the period of November 24 to 30 and 32 cases a day from December 1 to 7 with an attack rate of 6.3% and a hospital occupancy of 68%.
For the areas like Baguio in the “High risk” list the group of experts urge the local government units (LGUs) concerned to further intensify their efforts at testing, tracing, and isolation to reverse the increase in transmissions in their communities and implement more aggressive and effective localized lockdowns with stricter border controls is urgently needed to suppress further viral transmissions with effective and stricter border controls must be in place to mitigate Covid-19 transmissions within and between provinces together with more effective screening and other controls in our ports and airports will be crucial to supporting the government’s plans to expand domestic as well international travel in the country.
The independent research group said while the country celebrates the Yuletide.
“During this new normal Christmas, we must all be mindful that the virus is still here and is very much a clear and present danger to us all. We must also remind ourselves that the current positive trends in the NCR and in the Philippines are very tenuous and can easily be reversed if the government, the private sector, and the public become less vigilant and complacent in the fight against Covid-19,” the Octa research said.