{"id":265421,"date":"2020-08-16T05:19:17","date_gmt":"2020-08-16T09:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=265421"},"modified":"2020-08-16T05:19:17","modified_gmt":"2020-08-16T09:19:17","slug":"normin-prepares-to-reopen-tourism-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/08\/16\/normin-prepares-to-reopen-tourism-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"NorMin prepares to reopen tourism industry"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Lanzones Festival in Camiguin (Photo by Theglennpalacio\/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Northern Mindanao has been gearing up to reopen the region\u2019s tourism industry to local tourists amid the prevailing coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.<\/p>\n

Department of Tourism (DOT) Northern Mindanao Director May Salva\u00f1a-Unchuan emphasized the importance of complying with minimum health standards before tourism establishments are allowed to reopen.<\/p>\n

\u201cSa buong<\/em>\u00a0region,\u00a0ang mga<\/em>\u00a0[local government units]\u00a0din, mahigpit na pinapatupad ang minimum<\/em>\u00a0health standards (In the entire region, even in the LGUs, they are implementing minimum health standards),\u201d she said during an episode of CORDS-10 podcast on Saturday.<\/p>\n

She said observing minimum health protocols would ensure not only the safety of tourists, but also of employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order for us to rise up, we need to comply with the minimum health standards so that everybody will be safe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

However, she also admitted that the biggest challenge lies in restoring tourists\u2019 confidence in travel as Covid-19 cases continue to increase.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi natin maalis na matakot na mag<\/em>-travel\u00a0ang mga tao<\/em>\u00a0(We cannot prevent people from being afraid to travel). But by showing them that all of these establishments have been complying with the new normal,\u00a0nakita naman nila kung bakit, ano talaga ang<\/em>\u00a0cause\u00a0nito<\/em>\u00a0(showing them why, what\u2019s the cause). Okay, maybe we can venture out in the places where people are really implementing these in the establishments,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

To address this, she said Northern Mindanao has started creating video content on how tourism establishments are preparing for the new normal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s building the confidence of our tourists to make their plans and travel again. Still even with the pandemic we\u2019ve been busy trying to show our beautiful sites and campaigning for our travel tomorrow. You know, let\u2019s travel when it\u2019s safe already,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

According to Salva\u00f1a-Unchuan, Northern Mindanao is paying special attention to “special tourism projects” amid plans to reinvigorate the tourism industry when the Covid-19 situation improves.<\/p>\n

One of these projects is hot air balloon and aerial display tourism in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon, which was supposed to kick off last May, but was postponed to next year.<\/p>\n

Misamis Occidental, she said, offers a two-hour river cruise with different stops.<\/p>\n

Faith tourism is also being beefed up with pilgrimage tours in heritage sites, she added.<\/p>\n

As for dive tourism, she said Camiguin is the number one dive tourism site in Northern Mindanao, followed by Misamis Oriental.<\/p>\n

While the health crisis has severely affected the tourism industry, Salva\u00f1a-Unchuan expressed hope that local governments will continue to show local tourists that \u201cit\u2019s okay to travel\u201d as long as health and safety precautions are observed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they see that the establishments are also conforming, then I think later on when the restrictions are lifted, people will actually venture out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Northern Mindanao has been gearing up to reopen the region\u2019s tourism industry to local tourists amid the prevailing coronavirus …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":265422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265423,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265421\/revisions\/265423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}