While Metro Manila and many parts of the country are rejoicing over the shift to general community quarantine (GCQ) starting June 1, the Department of Tourism (DOT) stresses that no leisure activities are allowed yet.
According to DOT Undersecretary for Tourism Coordination, Regulation and Generation Arturo P. Boncato Jr., hotels cannot operate at 100-percent, and “no leisure travel” is permitted under GCQ. “Only workers from essential or permitted industries, overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), and arriving overseas Filipinos” are allowed in hotels officially registered to accept such guests, and to travel.
Also allowed are foreign guests transiting through the GCQ area or staying in the Philippines for a short period before leaving the country; long-staying guests, non-OFWs required to undergo facility-based quarantine; stranded passengers, as per a separate DOT Administrative Order No. 2020-02, signed on May 22 by Tourism Secretary Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat, a copy of which was obtained by the BusinessMirror.
This developed as Philippine Airlines (PAL) announced late Friday, the resumption of commercial flights from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, beginning June 1, for domestic and international routes. These include limited services to the U.S., Canada, Guam, Vietnam, mainland China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Japan, the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
For domestic routes, it will be flying to Basco, Laoag, Legazpi, Puerto Princesa, Busuanga (Coron) Bacolod, Cebu, Dumaguete, Iloilo, Kalibo (June 8), Caticlan, Roxas, Tacloban, Tagbilaran (Panglao), Butuan, Cotabato, Cagayan de Oro, Dipolog, Davao, General Santos, Ozamiz, Pagadian, and Zamboanga.
There will also be Cebu-Davao flights. The public may check the travel schedules on PAL’s web site.
Meanwhile, Boncato stressed it is only under a modified GCQ that leisure travel and activities will be permitted. “Under MGCQ, all tourism [activities] and markets are allowed,” he said.
According to the same AO, “Accommodation establishments may undertake normal operations under MGCQ and may accommodate bookings of all guests, whether for work or leisure; provided, that operations shall be at 50 percent operational capacity only.” It also permits the “ancillary establishments” within the premises, such as restaurants, cafés, bars, gyms, spas, and the like, to operate but at 50 percent capacity only.
The “New Normal” guidelines recently issued by the DOT refers to hotel operations allowed, post-lockdowns. (See, “DOT issues ‘new normal’ Covid-19 rules for hotels,” in the BusinessMirror, May 25, 2020.)
“Tourism will be allowed in a number of areas graduating from General Community Quarantine (GCQ) to the more relaxed Modified GCQ, and we are having our hotels and resorts prepared to follow the safety protocols,” said Romulo Puyat in an interview at GMA’s Unang Hirit.
She added, her department is in constant dialogue with tourism stakeholders about recovery efforts, and there is a consensus to “do it slowly but surely. Of course, some want their hotels to fill up already, but we said it should gradual, slowly, so when we reopen, we don’t want an outbreak in the tourism sector. All our efforts [to contain the disease], would have been wasted,” she said in Filipino.