How Baguio City takes extra precaution as it opens doors to Region 1 tourists

Baguio City is one of the first tourist spots to slowly reopen its doors amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

In an interview with "Quarantined with Howie Severino," Baguio Tourism officer Engr. Alec Mapalo shared their tourism recovery plan for the "summer capital."

Mapalo said they are not expecting influx of large number of tourists coming to the city and they are taking it slow.

"Medyo marami kaming requirements because the reopening of tourism here in Baguio City is primarily also very cautious and conscious of health and sanitation protocols," he said.

Baguio currently accepts an initial limit of 200 tourists daily but only those who are coming from Region 1.

"We know for a fact that medyo limiting 'yung market if that is the case," he said, adding that this is because Baguio is still managing its COVID-19 infections.

"We do not want na ma-compromise or ma-jeopardize 'yung aming health care capacity," he said.

Mapalo said they will first learn from the process of letting tourists from Region 1 in their city before they decide if they will open up to other regions.

"We are looking at perhaps two weeks or a month from now baka we can start expanding the market," he said. "Not necessarily NCR agad but this is how we would like our guidelines to be dynamic."

"So kaya ang aming ina-allow ngayon, ang ating binuksan actually is the travel for leisure that has not been allowed, it has been the last priority during the pandemic," he said.

Mapalo said they have an online registration requirement. However, he suggested exploring with tour and travel agents on where to go and which hotel to book.

Tourists can check out the list of travel agents posted on their Facebook page before scheduling a trip.

"But 'yung Baguio Visita they can already create personal accounts even without a travel agent yet so they can also choose to go straight doing a registration of their accounts," he said.

"One person, one account. After magkaroon ka na ng account, that is when you can start scheduling a visit," he added. "It is important that you will upload an ID with a photo, preferably passport, sabi nga namin, and then your current photo."

After registration and submission of the request to travel, tourists have to upload their confirmed itinerary and confirmed hotel booking or accommodation. They will then proceed to their electronic health declaration form.

"The aim here is that we have a unified health declaration for each tourist na they don't need to fill out the same questions or form in all establishments or tourist sites that they will have to go to," he said.

According to Mapalo, a tourist should have taken a COVID-19 test within 72 hours before travel and not more than that.

"We always encourage na lang to take the test prior to travel because when that time happens na nagka-positive ka rito, we will turn you over to our city health officials and they will do the management after that. And whatever expenses that will be incurred, it will be shouldered by the tourist," he said.

Visitors from Region 1 have been allowed to enter Baguio City starting October 1. —Jannielyn Bigtas/MGP, GMA News