Taal situation brings opportunities to other domestic destinations

The situation in the Taal Volcano affected areas is seen to impact tourists in the CALABARZON area, but the Department of Tourism (DOT) said this serves as an opportunity for the country to promote lesser-known destinations.

“There are certain things that are not under our control. Safety of the tourists is still number one,” Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said when asked about the impact of the Taal eruption on revenues generated by the tourism industry.

“So it’s just an opportunity to promote other sites,” she said. Tourism receipts for the 11 months ending November last year is estimated at $8.84 billion (P449 billion). Under the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP), the country is targeting tourism receipts to reach P661 billion this year.

Puyat said while revenues remain important for the tourism industry, the Taal eruption is a factor that it has no control of.

“So what we can just do is promote lesser known destinations, promote other destinations. We have 7,641 islands so it’s just an opportunity for us to promote other destinations,” she added.

“Like in Boracay, when I entered (the DOT), everyone was saying what will we do, Boracay is closed. So I said let’s just promote other destinations,” Puyat said.

She said Boracay’s closure led to the further promotion of other islands such as Siargao, which has been named as the best island in Asia by readers of Conde Nast Traveler in 2018.

The DOT said earlier that the Taal Volcano eruption has caused a tremendous setback for the tourism industry of the CALABARZON region, particularly Tagaytay, but expressed hope that it will quickly recover from the situation.

“Of course in Tagaytay, tourism is the main occupation, but for us, we will always follow the guidance of PHIVOLCS (Philippine Volcanology and Seismology).

If Phivolcs says that it’s dangerous within the 14 km danger zone, of course we will follow.

Safety is always number one over the numbers,” Puyat said. She also urged the public and tourism stakeholders to heed the advice of authorities.

On Sunday, PHIVOLCS lowered the Taal Volcano status to alert level three, two weeks after the volcano erupted on Jan. 12.