Baguio to ban visitors from NCR, nearby provinces
MANILA, Philippines — Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong on Monday announced that the city would no longer accept tourists from general community quarantine areas.
“Because of the recent issuance of IATF Resolution No. 104, we will make necessary adjustments. Hindi tayo tatanggap coming from NCR (National Capital Region), some parts of Region 3 and Region 4 specifically Rizal, Bulacan, Cavite Laguna,” he said at the Baguio City Hall Grounds.
The IATF Resolution No. 104 released Sunday restricted non-essential travels to and from Metro Manila, Rizal, Bulacan, Cavite and Laguna as the country’s COVID-19 cases topped 7,000 for three-consecutive days.
Latest Travel Advisory for TOURISTS from NCR, Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite and Rizal. We regret that the city will have to...
Posted by Baguio Tourism on Sunday, 21 March 2021
Magalong said that tourists from these areas comprise almost 70% of the city’s visitors.
During the Tourism and Technology Forum last Wednesday, Baguio City tourism officer Alec Mapalo said an average of 2,359 travels are being approved via the tourist management app Baguio VIS.I.T.A.
From March 1 to 14, the city received 33,086 travel requests and only 33,029 were approved.
“We will be expecting downtrend of our visitors especially during holy week,” the city chief executive said.
“That’s one way of controlling mobility,” he added.
The mayor added that the city availed of active community for four days.
Out of 2,641 who underwent Real-Time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction test, only 30 tested positive for COVID-19.
As of March 21, the city has a total 6,877 cases with 714 active cases, 117 deaths and 6,046 recoveries.
Find the latest travel and tourism news from around the world amid the coronavirus pandemic. Main image by AFP/Romeo Gacad
Airlines will fly 4.35 billion passengers this year, close to the 2019 record as the industry bounces back from the Covid pandemic, an industry group said on Monday.
The sector will also be back in the green, with net profits forecast to reach $9.8 billion in 2023, or double previous estimates, boosted by the end of China's Covid restrictions, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The association added that its 2022 losses were half as bad as previously estimated at $3.6 billion.
"Airline financial performance in 2023 is beating expectations," IATA director general Willie Walsh said in a statement during the association's annual general meeting in Istanbul.
"Stronger profitability is supported by several positive developments. China lifted Covid-19 restrictions earlier in the year than anticipated," Walsh said. — AFP
Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific reports its first annual operating profit since 2019 as the airline fights to return to pre-pandemic flight capacity.
"Cathay Pacific has experienced three challenging years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with 2022 very much being a year of two halves," chairman Patrick Healy says in a statement announcing the results..
Cathay is still trailing regional rivals such as Singapore Airlines, with Hong Kong's axing of harsh pandemic curbs -- including mandatory hotel quarantine and strict testing requirements -- only beginning in the fall of last year.
The airline operated at one-third of pre-pandemic passenger flight capacity in December but expects to reach 70% of that figure by the end of 2023, the company says. — AFP
German airline giant Lufthansa says Friday it returned to annual profit in 2022 after two years of losses, its fortunes lifted by rebounding demand as economies reopened after COVID-19 shutdowns.
The group reported a net profit of 791 million euros ($839 million) for last year. This compares to a net loss of 2.2 billion euros in 2021 and 6.7 billion euros in 2020.
"Lufthansa is back," says the company's CEO Carsten Spohr. — AFP
People hoping to take advantage of a Hong Kong scheme to give away half a million free airline tickets face hours-long online queues on Wednesday, as the Asian financial hub bids to woo tourists back.
The city last month launched a campaign to reboot its reputation as "Asia's world city", after years of strict pandemic-related travel restrictions and a crackdown on sometimes violent pro-democracy protests.
On Wednesday, Hong Kong became one of the last places in the world to drop its outdoor mask mandate, which city leader John Lee said was a sign that it was "resuming normalcy". — AFP
Australian airline Qantas says Thursday it bounced back into profit in late 2022, hailing a "huge turnaround" after swallowing massive losses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
The national carrier posted a second-half profit of Aus$1.43 billion (US$974 million) before tax, after accumulating Aus$7 billion in losses across the previous three years.
Chief executive Alan Joyce says surging demand for flights had boosted the company's fortunes while announcing a plan to buy back Aus$500 million in Qantas shares. — AFP
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