By Azer
 |
| Tourists in Boracay Island (File photo) |
MANILA -- To help the government meet its goal of acquiring 9.2
million international tourist arrivals by yearend despite the novel coronavirus
acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD) outbreak, a Palace official on
Tuesday said a catch-up plan could be put in place instead of immediately
readjusting its targets.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles made this remark as Department of
Tourism (DOT) Undersecretary Benito Bengzon Jr. bared that there are no
immediate plans to revise the tourism targets for this year.
“Obviously we want to keep the targets and adjust accordingly. So once
this whole scare and situation is done, then magrere-calibrate lang
siguro ang DOT (the DOT will just recalibrate) on how to catch up,”
Nograles said during the Pandesal Forum in Quezon City.
“A catch-up plan would be better than totally reassess kaagad eh
napaka-aga pa sa taon para mag (immediately because it’s too early in the
year to) reassess,” he added.
Nograles suggested that a reassessment of tourism targets could be made
if another unfortunate incident apart from the nCoV outbreak would come up.
He said that reassessment could probably happen after the second
quarter.
The House committees on tourism and economic affairs have also started
working with the DOT to assess the short- and medium-term effects of the
2019-nCoV “to ensure that tourism growth will not be derailed in the next few
months.”
Data from the DOT showed that at least 1.63 million of the total 7.4
million international tourist arrivals from January to November of 2019 were
Chinese.
The Chinese are also considered the second biggest tourist spenders in
the Philippines next to the South Koreans, with the DOT noting that Chinese
tourists spent USD979.4 million or around PHP51 billion in the country in the
first half of 2019.
Tourism accounts for around 2.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic
product.
Following reports that there have been flight cancelations coming from
non-China markets, Nograles said that this was expected as governments were
taking measures to limit unnecessary travel.
“I think that’s something that we would probably observe not just in
the Philippines but other countries as well,” Nograles said.
“I won’t be surprised if it’s also affected travel to this side of the
world,” he said, referring to East Asian countries.
On Feb. 2, President Rodrigo Duterte imposed a temporary travel ban of
visitors coming from mainland China and its special administrative regions Hong
Kong and Macao except for Filipinos.
Duterte also barred Filipinos from traveling to China, Hong Kong, and
Macao for their protection against the deadly virus.
Currently, some 153 confirmed cases of nCoV have been reported in 23
other countries.
The first death outside China was reported in the Philippines, a
44-year-old Chinese man from Wuhan in Hubei province, China, the epicenter of
the outbreak.
The World Health Organization has already declared the nCoV as a public
health emergency of international concern. (PNA)
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