THE Department of Tourism (DOT) will be asking the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and various local governments to help tend to the local tourists stranded in their respective cities and provinces.
In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat said, “I will bring this up to the DILG and we are already in discussions with some local government units to assist us in this area.”
She added the agency is aware that there are also a number of local tourists who got stranded by the initial enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila, which later became Luzon wide, in a bid by the government to contain the spread of the Corona Virus Disease (Covid-19).
The DOT has no data yet on the number of stranded locals in various tourism destinations of the country. The agency said it recently assisted some 10,300 foreign tourists to taking sweeper flight back to major gateways, to enable them to catch flights to return to their home countries. (See, “DOT comes to aid of 10,000 stranded foreign tourists,” in the BusinessMirror, March 25, 2020.)
Romulo Puyat also said the DOT would be investigating reports of foreign tourists kicked out by local hotels during the Luzon-wide lockdown, as alleged by Foreign Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. On his Twitter account on Tuesday, he said, “Met EU [Charge d’Affaires] Thomas Wiersing who delivered the bad news that foreign tourists are sleeping in open air w/o shelter or roof over their heads because their hotels kicked [them] out once their bookings, even if they fail to book domestic flights out. Blacklist these hotels”
The DOT chief said the agency, together with the Department of Foreign Affairs, “will investigate these hotels in question and file legal actions, if necessary.”
She also reiterated her appeal for hotels “not to overcharge guests” during the Luzon-wide lockdown, especially for frontliners like medical workers. Romulo Puyat said she had to call the attention of a Manila-based hotel in writing for charging frontliners “P8,500 a night.”
In the implementing rules and regulations of DOT’s Administrative Order 2020-001, hotels are allowed to accept new bookings from foreign tourists “who are in transit to leave the country.”
Meanwhile, on the DOT’s Facebook page, various appeals from locals have been posted, asking for ways to get home.
From Rosario Christensen: “Please also do something for local tourists that have been stranded on the islands. My mom needs to go home to Davao from Bacolod, as I’m sure many other local tourists are in similar situation.”
Said Renalyn Taboy Azanda: “Nag-tour po kami ng anak ko galing Norway. Stranded po kami ngayon sa Manila. Sana po matulungan nyo kaming makauwi sa Ilocos.”
Kim Cabrera asked: “Solo travel po, One week na kami mahigit dito stranded sa Davao. Wala po bang help from the sweeper flights sa mga local?”
Government and private sector sources said, however, some LGUs implemented their own lockdowns, such that some of them didn’t want to accept their own constituents who wanted to return home.
“Some of the provincial governments an LGUs are not allowing to go in anymore even if they are [residents of those areas], like Cebu and Bohol,” said a tourism executive familiar with the matter. “Where will they be taken? They should stay put where they are. The foreigners are departing the country so we don’t have to worry where they will stay,” the executive added.
Sources cited one case where a few Cebuano tourists were able to take the sweeper flights meant for foreigners, “but when they got to Cebu, the governor didn’t want to accept them. And to think they are the governor’s constituents!”
Projecting lower inbound tourists due to the Covid-19 outbreak in many countries, the DOT, along with the private sector, launched a domestic marketing campaign to get locals to travel around the Philippines prior to the Luzon-wide lockdown. (See, “PHL travel, tourism industry turns local as Covid-19 wreaks havoc,” in the BusinessMirror, March 12, 2020.)