BOHOL has targeted to reopen tourism by the last quarter of 2020.
Gov. Arthur Yap made this announcement in a briefing with Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat and Interior Secretary Eduardo M. Año, who visited the province on Friday to inspect the province’s Covid-19 testing laboratory and the world-famous Alona Beach. “The last quarter is a moving target,” said Yap, even as the province implements several projects that are targeted to enhance the tourism experience.
He said, however, he was still discussing with Romulo Puyat which countries Bohol will have bilateral travel agreements with for a “travel bubble.” The Tourism chief, for her part, said, “Everything is fluid, but then we’ve already been talking, once travel restrictions have been lifted, we can already talk about direct flights.” She said her agency has already discussed this with Korea, Japan and Australia, which have very low Covid-19 cases.
Yap said, he is eyeing Panglao Island and the municipality of Dauis as the first to reopen to tourism. As such, the province has created its own Unique Bohol Experience (UBE), an accreditation program for local tourism stakeholders, “riding on the back” of the Department of Tourism’s accreditation program. He said, “We don’t see it as a double burden [on tourism stakeholders] because we have a unique situation in Bohol. We have certain conditions that we want to be fulfilled because we want to make our tourism extra-sustainable.” Under UBE, he explained, the province will check the ratio of parking lot, sewerage treatment plant, carrying capacity, wastewater management, ratio of renewable energy, among others.
Yap noted a study by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has determined Bohol’s carrying capacity to be 2,400 tourists at any given time, per day, “and based on our records, we are around that area right now.”
In 2019, visitor arrivals in Bohol reached 1.58 million in 2019, up 5.6 percent from the arrivals in 2018. Of the total arrivals in the province, 854,853 were domestic tourists, and 727,051 were foreign tourists, according to data provided by DOT-Central Visayas.
Año, on his end, praised Yap and other local government representatives of the province for being proactive and efficient in dealing with its Covid-19 cases, “that we are able to concentrate on other places that have high cases such as Cebu, Laguna and Metro Manila.” As of July 30, the province reported they only have 22 active cases, 60 recovered cases, and four deaths. Bohol was the first province, on its own, which implemented a total lockdown following the enhanced community quarantine implemented in Luzon on March 16.
Año suggested that RT-PCR swab tests be conducted on those arriving at the airport. Taking off from the Davao experience, he said the Bohol government can pay for the swab tests of their returning residents who had been stranded abroad or in other regions, while tourists and businessmen pay for their own tests.
Meanwhile, Romulo Puyat said Bohol is expected to receive $62 million (P3.1 billion) in funding from the World Bank by the first quarter of 2021, for various tourism projects. Among these are the Assistance to Reinvigorate Tourism (ART) Value Chain, the Palengke Program, and tourism sites enhancement and management and enhancement of hygiene preparedness in tourist sites.
In particular, Yap said the World Bank will fund the Bohol Water and Sanitation Project. He said the province has also partnered with the DOT’s Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza) for an STP project for Balicasag Island and the rehabilitation of Panglao Island, which includes a P400-million sanitary landfill.
He added, “We have started to demolish illegal structures in Alona Beach,” as part of the rehabilitation of Panglao Island. The demolition of illegal structures had been required by the Inter-Agency Task Force monitoring Boracay and other island tourism destinations since 2018. However, issues with the municipal government have delayed the island’s rehabilitation.
Yap also reiterated the province’s request to establish a local office for the DOT’s Philippine Commission on Sports Scuba Diving. “As we all know, Bohol is really the center of the best dive sports in the Philippines. This has been a decade-long clamor. A PCSSD in Bohol will allow us to regulate the diving industry in Bohol, including protecting the dive sites.”
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