MANILA, 8 July 2020: Palawan in the Philippines hopes to reopen tourism in the towns of El Nido, Coron, and San Vicente once safety and health protocols have been set in place in the province.
There is no specific date yet as to when the three municipalities will start accepting travellers, but the Department of Tourism chief, Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, said a ‘dry run’ will start in El Nido resorts “as soon as possible”.
According to the Philippines News Agency, Romulo-Puyat explained that during the ‘dry run’, tourists coming from areas under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) would need to undergo a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test at their own expense.
If a tourist is departing from Clark International Airport, the negative test result from any DOH-approved hospitals needs to be presented “before they travel”.
Romulo-Puyat said the Department of Tourism wants to restart leisure activities in the province, but the process must be “slow and sure”.
Since March, the pandemic has cost the three tourist destinations around PHP3.1 billion in tourism receipts and displaced some 14,000 tourism workers.
Palawan Governor Jose Alvarez echoed Romulo-Puyat’s sentiments, adding there would be “selective, targetted, and prioritized” tourism in the three municipalities.
“I hope that we have clarified our stand that there is no more such thing as mass tourism, so in the coming months, somehow we will have to open slowly and safely,” he said.
(Source: PNA)
