MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Tourism on Friday announced hotels in Baguio City are now allowed to receive domestic tourists from areas under General Community Quarantine.
The announcement came a day after the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases approved Baguio City’s request to resume hotel operations in consideration of the huge number of confirmed bookings this month.
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The DOT endorsed the reopening of the City of Pines to tourists under GCQ this week.
Tourists from GCQ areas were barred from entering Baguio City after the entire Cordillera Administrative Region reverted to the stricter quarantine classification for the month of February.
“Given Baguio City’s visitor information, registration and contract tracing system and the assurance to undertake stricter measures to make it work, we objectively endorsed the request to the IATF for guidance,” Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said.
Based on IATF-MEID’s Resolution No. 98, dated February 4, Baguio City hotels and other accommodation establishments are permitted to accommodate local travelers for leisure purposes.
The DOT was also ordered to come up with guidelines for the accommodation of guests for leisure and business purposes in areas under different levels of community quarantine.
It said that the “summer capital” of the country was granted the authority to accept tourists since it “institutionalized protocols on registration requiring all to have a VISITA account, easy contact tracing of visitors using the QTP (QR-coded Tourist Pass) system and strict Triage procedures upon arrival.”
As of February 4, Baguio City has recorded a total of 5,097 cases. Of which, 461 are active cases and 4,539 have recovered. The death toll stands at 97.