{"id":270860,"date":"2020-10-05T22:18:59","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T02:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=270860"},"modified":"2020-10-05T22:18:59","modified_gmt":"2020-10-06T02:18:59","slug":"covid-free-boracay-promises-safe-tourism-amid-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/10\/05\/covid-free-boracay-promises-safe-tourism-amid-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid-free Boracay promises \u2018safe\u2019 tourism amid pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Boracay, Philippines (Photo: @ramonkagie\/Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Boracay is currently virus-free and local officials are going to make sure it is going to stay that way in order to revive tourism in the world-famous tourism destination, a Palace official said Monday.<\/p>\n

In a press briefing from Boracay, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque encouraged local tourists to visit the beach island, adding that the long lockdown has allowed time to put in place stricter health and safety protocols.<\/p>\n

\u201cPanahon na po para tayo naman po ay magbakasyon matapos ang napakatagal na lockdown lalung-lalo na sa Metro Manila. Naghihintay na po ang pinakamagandang beach sa buong mundo<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Boracay \u2013 open for business (It\u2019s time to go on a vacation after a long lockdown especially in Metro Manila. The most beautiful beach in the world is waiting, it\u2019s open for business),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Governor Florencio Miraflores, in the same briefing, assured tourists that medical staff are ready to attend to suspected Covid-19 cases, complete medical facilities are available, and a hotline can easily be reached.<\/p>\n

\u201cSafe\u00a0na<\/em>\u00a0safe\u00a0ang<\/em>\u00a0Boracay\u00a0kasi hanggang ngayon<\/em>\u00a0Covid-free\u00a0pa rin ang<\/em>\u00a0island\u00a0ng<\/em>\u00a0Boracay (Boracay is very safe because until now the island remains Covid-free),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Over 50 tourists have so far visited the beach island over the weekend, but Miraflores is hoping that this number would improve in the next few weeks and months.<\/p>\n

He said several hotels and accommodations are also offering up to 75 percent discounts for rooms so that visitors have enough pocket money to undergo mandatory reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests.<\/p>\n

\u201cNapagkasunduan na para ma<\/em>-offset\u00a0iyong<\/em>\u00a0RT-PCR test\u00a0na medyo may kamahalan ay nag<\/em>-agree\u00a0ang mga<\/em>\u00a0tour operators\u00a0at saka<\/em>\u00a0tourist establishments\u00a0na magbibigay sila ng<\/em>\u00a0as much as 75 percent discount on room rates (We agreed that to offset the price of the RT-PCR test which is a bit expensive, tour operators and tourist establishments agreed to give as much as a 75 percent discount on room rates),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hardest-hit<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since tourism is one of the hardest-hit industries by the outbreak, Roque was \u201csaddened\u201d about several tourism industry workers in Boracay losing their jobs during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cMedyo nalulungkot ako na ang daming nawalang ng trabaho dito siyempre dahil sa pandemya<\/em>\u00a0(I\u2019m a bit sad that there are many who lost their jobs here of course because of the pandemic),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque said he wanted to lure more visitors in the beach island to help tourism workers and communities whose livelihoods were affected by the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaya kami naririto, ay engganyuhin iyong ating mga kababayan \u2018no; dahil kapag hindi po tayo bumisita sa<\/em>\u00a0Boracay,\u00a0ang mga eroplano na walang laman, ikakansela ang mga<\/em>\u00a0flights.\u00a0Kapag nangyari po iyon, magiging mas mahirap nang pumunta sa<\/em>\u00a0Boracay\u00a0at mas maraming mga negosyong malulugi at baka tuluyan nang magsara<\/em>\u00a0(We\u2019re here to entice our citizens to visit because if they don\u2019t visit Boracay, airplanes would not have any passengers and flights would be canceled. If that happens, it will be more difficult to visit Boracay and businesses would go bankrupt and would eventually close),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque, meanwhile, assured tourism industry workers that the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or Bayanihan 2 and the proposed PHP4.5-trillion national budget for 2021 will also finance soft loans for workers displaced by the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayroon po tayong<\/em>\u00a0PHP4 bilyon\u00a0na nasa loob ng<\/em>\u00a0Bayanihan 2\u00a0na nakalaan para sa turismo, sa<\/em>\u00a0sector\u00a0ng turismo<\/em>\u00a0(We have PHP4 billion which is part of Bayanihan 2 allocated for the tourism sector),\u201d he said. \u201cMayroon pa ring mga bagong mga tulong na nakalagay po or provided doon sa ating 2021 proposed budget (There are also aid provided in our 2021 proposed budget).\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, travelers visiting Boracay will be subject to the test-before-travel regulation that requires a negative RT-PCR result 48 to 72 hours prior to departure.<\/p>\n

Airlines are required to land at the Godofredo R. Ramos Airport in Caticlan, Municipality of Malay, the only airport of entry in moving tourists to the island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Boracay is currently virus-free and local officials are going to make sure it is going to stay that way …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":245182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-270860","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\/270860","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=270860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270873,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270860\/revisions\/270873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}