A tourism official expressed optimism that Bohol would be able to start welcoming foreign tourists by January next year if the province maintains its low number of active COVID-19 cases.
“We are hoping that by January naa na unta [arrivals], if we could just keep our COVID cases down and we are opening our green lanes,” said Bohol Tourism Office chief Josephine Cabarrus during the Capitol’s weekly press online briefing on Friday.
According to Provincial Administrator Kathyrin Pioquinto, Bohol will be among the pioneer destinations which will be allowed to accept foreign tourists when the national government greenlights the entry of fully vaccinated foreign tourists.
She said Department of Tourism Sec. Bernadette Romulo-Puyat announced that the national Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) has approved “in principle” the DOT’s request to allow the entry of fully vaccinated tourists from “green-list countries.”
The IATF however has yet to draft the guidelines for the new policy.
“Dugang pa ni Sec. Bernadette Romul o-Puyat who has been very supportive of our tourism efforts here in Bohol, we’re very confident na og mo sugod nani Bohol is also going to be one of the pioneer province that would be welcoming international tourists from green-list countries,” she said.
The recent arrival of the first international flight to Bohol in over a year has also sparked hope that the province’s doors will soon reopen to foreign tourists.
The Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight from Bangkok, Thailand which arrived earlier this week only had on board returning Filipinos but the arrival marked the launch of the province’s “One Stop Shop,” a multi-agency team tasked to process international arrivals and ensure health safety at the island’s gateway.
Local preparations
According to Cabarrus, they have been preparing for the tourist arrivals by ensuring that hotels and resorts have complied with health safety protocols to as part of efforts to keeps the province’s COVID-19 cases low.
“Dili gyud nato kalimtan or take lightly ang health considerations kay simbako—although karon we are experiencing minimal COVID cases but somehow basin simbako naay laing wave like what is happening now in Europe,” Cabarrus said.
She added that the tourism sector has also prepared new destinations to offer on top of the traditional sites such as the Chocolate Hills and the beaches of Panglao.
“Nagkama ta og mga bag-ong tourism circuits na para sa atong mga turista na nangari would have something new to see and to do,” said Cabarrus.
The BTO intends to highlight the province’s food, farm products and faith-based attractions.
They are also planning to promote Bohol as a wedding destination.
“We are coming up with a Marian pilgrimage tour, so we are looking at giving our guests something na dili lang Chocolate hills. We are also promoting Bohol as a wedding destination and in fact karon, we are having an inspection of sites na gi-identify as wedding-related activities,” she said.
The BTO hopes that the new offerings would help Bohol’s tourism industry recover from its slump when it finally reopens to foreign tourist under the “new normal.”
“The industry has been suffering and we need to spur economic activity especially our tourism sector that has been greatly hit,” she said.
Based on data from the BTO, Bohol’s number of tourist arrivals in 2020 plummeted to 177,341 from over 1.5 million in the previous year.
The figure remained low for 2021 at 107,831 as of October. (A. Doydora)