THE Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP) is calling for a temporary travel ban on Chinese tourists, while the novel coronavirus continues to spread in mainland China.
This developed as Bloomberg reported the Beijing government has been scrambling to contain the spread of the virus by ordering travel agencies to stop selling domestic and international tours.
This will likely decrease the number of foreign visitor arrivals in the country, according to TCP President Jose C. Clemente III, although Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat in a news briefing said it was too early to tell if the virus outbreak would have any impact.
On Friday, Romulo Puyat said there was a 15.6-percent increase in foreign tourists in the country, reaching 7.4 million from January to November 2019. China was the second top source market for tourists at 1.63 million, after South Korea’s 1.8 million for the year in review.
In the first half of 2019, Chinese tourists spent $979.4 million, or some P51 billion, in the Philippines. They were the second-largest spender as a market, after South Koreans.
In a message from Madrid where he is attending the Fitur, an international tourism fair in Madrid, Clemente told the BusinessMirror, “In the interest of public health and safety, there may be a need to look into a temporary travel ban on Chinese travelers to the Philippines to stave off the possibility of infections. We should have learned from the lessons of SARS and be proactive this time around.”
The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) has, so far, banned inbound travel from Wuhan, in the Hubei province of China, which was the reported source of the novel coronavirus infection.
Beijing’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, according to Bloomberg, ordered travel agencies and tourism companies to stop selling tour packages beginning Friday, the start of the Lunar New Year holiday for China.
“Yes,” said Clemente, when asked if the new coronavirus will impact on tourist arrivals in the Philippines because of an anticipated drop in Chinese tourists. He warned that people are concerned for their safety, that other markets may also be affected, more so if the infections “hit here [in the Philipines].”
During the SARS outbreak in the 2003, tourist arrivals in the Philippines fell by 1.3 percent to 1.9 million, but recovered in 2004 with a 20.1-percent jump to 2.3 million.
Also attending Fitur Madrid, Joey Bernardino, group director for sales and marketing for El Nido Resorts, said, “There is strong interest in the Philippines and a lot of destinations have made a name [for themselves]. But I didn’t encounter any questions [from our buyers] regarding coronavirus, but had several questions regarding Taal Volcano.”
Meanwhile, visitor arrivals from the United States reached 954,952 in January to November 2019, keeping them in the third spot among the Philippines’s top source market for tourists. In fourth place was Japan with arrivals at 623,409, based on data released by the DOT.
This was followed by Taiwan at 336,004; Canada at 208,199; the United Kingdom, 187,164; and Singapore, 145,579. The DOT failed to release the November 2019 arrivals for Australia and India, which in the 10 months to October, made the top 10 source market for tourists at 226,167 and 112,247, respectively.
“If December figures are the same as [2018], for sure we’re getting at least 8.1 million visitors in 2019,” said Romulo Puyat. “Our target as per the National Tourism Development Plan for 2019 was 8.2 million. I would still prefer revenue over the numbers; but [the arrival numbers are] still good,” she said.
For his part, DOT Undersecretary for Tourism Development Planning Benito Bengzon Jr. gave assurances the same health screening procedure conducted at the airports to monitor passengers for possible novel coronavirus infection is also carried out on arriving cruise ships. “CIQ [Customs, Immigration, Quarantine] personnel also board the ships. So whatever screening you have in the airport will be the followed for cruise passengers,” he stressed.