Philippines Tourism revenues and arrivals declined by more than half for the first trimester of 2020, compared to the same period last year. The country’s revenue recorded P79.8 billion from January to April 2020, against last year's figures of P180.52 billion.
Tourism Secretary Bernadette Puyat recently revealed that the revenues dropped by 55% from January to April 2020. As far as arrivals of visitors were concerned, foreigners who arrived in the country from January to April reached just 1.3 million, or 54% lower than the 2019 figure of 2.8 million tourist arrivals.
Puyat attributed this to the enforcement of travel restrictions and quarantine measures across the globe, severely hitting micro, small, and medium enterprises which comprise a huge chunk of the tourism industry. As both international and domestic travel restrictions were in effect for the entirety of April, there have been no visiting tourists. Therefore, there was no revenue for the tourism industry.
According to Puyat, nnce tourism is allowed, they would be implementing certain policies, such as regular sanitation of facilities and tourism transportation; provision of sanitation and disinfecting equipment; regular inspection of facilities; and enforcement of physical distancing.
Under the Inter-Agency Task Force guidelines, tourism activities are only allowed under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), but only at a maximum 50% operational capacity. Currently, there are no areas under MGCQ.
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