Reopening of international tourism market sought

CEBU, Philippines —  After losing billions of pesos from typhoon Odette and suffering the brunt of the lingering pandemic, tourism stakeholders in Central Visayas appeal for re-opening of international access in order to survive.

 “The private sector is resilient as long as it has the market, but without them (foreign market) the industry will not survive,” said Federico Carmona of Amun Ini dive resort in Anda, Bohol, during the Central Visayas’ tourism recovery consultation held on January 21, 2022.

According to Carmona , while players are welcoming the initiatives to help from local government units and financial institutions such as access to credit lines to help in the rehabilitation of the sector, still “the tourism establishments may have difficulty paying their loans due to the absence of the foreign market.”

Department of Tourism (DOT-7) regional director Shalimar Tamano explained that while the proposed travel bubble program was expected to start off the re-opening of international borders, this program is intervened by Typhoon Odette and the Omicron threat. Thus, the travel bubble program of Cebu Province was set aside.

However, Tamano expressed confidence that the travel bubble talks will soon resume, recognizing the role of international market for the industry’s fast recovery. In November last year, the Cebu Province has started looking into creating travel bubbles or safe corridors with Korea, China and Japan, which are Cebu’s top tourist source markets in a bid to restart and create tourism activities in the province.

Travel bubbles refer to the arrangements between countries for travelers to enter each other’s borders without the need for strict quarantines or at least very minimal periods of quarantine.

If the planned travel bubble program will be pursued, DOT-7 expects the influx of foreign arrivals particular in Cebu, from Korea, China and Japan.

In 2019, Central Visayas registered 4,300,226 foreign arrivals. Korea, Japan and China, which are the region’s top tourist source markets, logged a total of 2,890,399 combined arrivals.