Philippine tourism sector preparing to reopen, but travel confidence at a low

Published May 12, 2020 01:22 PM By JON VIKTOR D. CABUENAS,GMA News

The Philippine tourism sector is now gearing to bounce back and promote domestic travel once lockdown restrictions are eased, but flagged that travel confidence is likely to be hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a Go Negosyo forum on Tuesday, stakeholders of the local tourism sector said that even if quarantine measures are relaxed, tourists will not have as much confidence to resume their travels.

Metro Manila and several "high-risk areas" have been on lockdown since March 17

, with the ECQ already having been extended twice to last until May 15.

The government on Tuesday also announced that such areas will then be placed under a modified ECQ from May 16 to 31 which will allow limited movement and transportation.

One of the most hit industries by the pandemic is the airline industry, with commercial flights canceled. A timeline for the resumption of such flights has yet to be announced.

"We're seeing there's a reluctance to travel. The main concern is basically the transmittal of the disease to their family members," Philippine Airlines Inc. president and chief operating officer Gilbert Santa Maria said in the webinar.

"If we can reassure them that it's safe to travel then they will fly cause there's also very high continuing demand to escape this lockdown," he added.

Santa Maria said the company has been receiving queries from tourists in the United Kingdom regarding the availability of flights to beach destinations in the Philippines once travel is allowed.

The same sentiment was shared by the hotel industry, represented by Henann Group of Resorts chairman Henry Chusuey, who said that domestic tourism will likely by the driver of growth moving forward.

"We believe that our main client on the open will be Filipino, local tourists. Before Chinese, Taiwan, Koreans [were our main clients], but that will take some time cause they will not be coming back (immediately)," he said.

"I think we need to promote the local tourism so that we can give back the jobs to our employees. That's very important now. It's not about profit. It's about the livelihood of our employees," he added.

For Enchanted Kingdom chairman and president Cesar Mario Mamon, even with travel restrictions down, people would most likely focus on essential needs and not on leisure and entertainment.

"People, when they come out of this pandemic -- which would most likely lead into a recession -- will concentrate on their food, shelter or clothing or their essentials, so to speak," he said.

"It really posts a challenge for us, but the direction we plan to take is to try and convince our market that there is really a value in still going out into our outdoors and enjoying our scenery, enjoying our rides and attractions," added Mamon.

Mamon said the amusement park will bank on the "adventurous" and "escapist" side of Filipinos to boost revenues moving forward.

For his part, Tourism Congress of the Philippines president Jose Clemente III said that domestic travel will most likely be the focus in terms of promotions once restrictions are removed.

"As confidence grows with regard to flights and as destinations start to ease their restrictions as well, then that's when we can probably start looking at probably more wide-scale domestic travel, but to be realistic about it we don't see that happening for another few months," he said.

Clemente said that even before promoting the country to tourists overseas, the safety of domestic tourism must first be ensured.

"We have to build up the confidence of the traveler to just get on the plane. We have to get our protocols in place, we have to make sure that the destinations themselves are prepared to take in domestic tourists," he said.

"So, in essence, the domestic travelers will be the guinea pigs so to speak for the international market later on. We will be the ones who test out whether we are ready," Clemente added.

The Philippines has so far recorded a total of 11,086 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection as of Monday, May 11, 2020. These include 1,999 recoveries and 726 deaths. --KBK, GMA News

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