Raring to travel, even domestically

Get those vaccination cards out! Travel is back on the agenda of most Filipinos who have completed their full vaccine dose, especially now that COVID-19 infection rates are so much lower and the increase in numbers of new vaccinated individuals continue to be on track towards attaining “herd immunity.”

Although the pandemic is still far from officially over, Filipinos are plotting, with an abundance of caution, their escapes from the long quarantines by exploring the best of what domestic tourism can offer. Fortunately, a number of local destinations are ready to receive them.

The Department of Tourism (DoT) and local tourism stakeholders have been busy these last few months preparing for the day when Filipinos would start venturing outside of their homes without worry of compromising their health safety.

That day seems to have come as more tourism staff – from travel agencies, adventure and recreation destinations, and in hotel and staycation facilities – all fully vaccinated and able to deliver top-notch health and safety precautions.

Barring the emergence of any new, but more contagious COVID-19 variants, Filipinos are now able to travel with more ease as popular destinations like Boracay, Bohol, Baguio, and Cebu City waive swab tests and quarantine restrictions for the fully vaccinated.

The three-day weekend coinciding with All Souls Day on a Monday was an opportunity for families, together with children and elders, to get out of the metro confines to enjoy leisure time in more relaxed environments like beach cabanas or mountain lodges.

Out of the dark

The DOT believes that domestic tourism is the right way to resuscitate an industry that has been among the most badly hit by this pandemic, and to bring it back out of the dark after months of being shuttered.

Our tourism officials are relying on the immense spending power of local travellers, which reportedly reached P3.14 trillion in 2019. Several industry stakeholders say that earning even half of that amount this year will be good enough to start 2022 on a good note.

The industry is expecting a very upbeat holiday merry-making mood to generate the needed revenues from locals who will want to spend lavishly after missing last year’s festive gatherings – and not just with family, but also friends and colleagues at work.

This is a kind of revenge spending on travel and leisure after missing opportunities to celebrate life milestones for the most part of 2020 and 2021. Tourism stakeholders surmise that this excessive kind of behavior will carry on for the better part of 2022.

UK-based Oxford Economics has even released a prognosis last August that domestic travel will be the pillar of our tourism industry next year, with more locals favoring in-country tour destinations rather than travel abroad, presumably to allow more people to join.

Even a locally commissioned survey by the DoT earlier this year remained bullish about the potential of domestic tourism to save the whole industry because vaccinations had to be prioritized for the more vulnerable sectors of Philippine society.

The Philippines’ campaign to ramp up domestic tourism is about a year late, though, compared to other ASEAN countries that are also heavily dependent on tourism revenues and which has, by far, more investments and employees in the sector.

Lao PDR came up with Lao People Travel in Laos through social media in the second quarter of 2020, with the local industry offering raffle prizes as incentive for people to travel for leisure. Brunei came up with similar programs, also with a little help from the sultanate.

Other countries, on the other hand, relied on huge state support for local programs ($608 million for Thailand’s We Travel Together, and $236 million for the SingapoRediscover program) to subsidize local travel, staycation vouchers, and other initiatives.

All have been successful while COVID-19 infection levels were down to almost nil. However, whenever surges were reported, lockdowns put on hold all domestic tourism efforts.

Untapped potential

The focus to prioritize the resuscitation of domestic tourism in the Philippines is understandable given the disparity of revenues from inbound tourism, which at P600.8 billion in 2019 was only at about 20 percent of the reported local tourist expenditures.

Still, business from foreign visitors holds an immense and untapped potential, which currently the Philippines has failed to cash in compared with tourism programs of other countries in the ASEAN region.

The Philippines continues to be a laggard in terms of inbound visitor arrivals and foreign tourist spending despite the country boasting of great resorts and shorelines, complemented by top-notch hospitality services of Filipinos famed for their smiles and gentle demeanor.

Thankfully, Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat has managed to convince the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) to allocate enough vaccines in many key tourism destinations in an effort to fully protect tourism workers, and even the local community, from the COVID-19 virus. This will come in handy when inbound tourism gets a reboot.

The DoT, though, is still on a wait-and-watch mode while its regional peers are rushing to open borders to foreign tourists. Thailand has designated Phuket as a quarantine-free bubble destination for fully vaccinated visitors, and responses by other ASEAN countries like Malaysia and Indonesia are in the works for fear of being left out.

Apparently, the Philippines is not alarmed. Meanwhile, according to locals who recently braved travel to Boracay and similar pricey destinations formerly prioritized for foreigners, having the beach all to themselves is bliss, an opportunity that will not be around when global tourism gets back to the pre-pandemic rush.

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