The travel and tourism industry is a very important one that currently employs almost half a million Filipinos. Just recently, AirAsia has announced its support for the reopening of leisure travel by business groups and local government units. This is particularly for islands like Boracay and Panglao Island in Bohol. Of course, this has to be subject to strict bubble tourism guidelines.
To be honest, a lot of people want to travel and take vacations where visiting beaches is one of their favorite. I mean, don’t we just miss enjoying a fruit shake while enjoying the scenery of Boracay and Panglao Island? Or perhaps a cold cold bottle of beer during sunset?
It’s a good thing the some local government units and tourism groups are pushing for the reopening of leisure travel. The Bohol Tourism Council has committed to manage tourist arrivals from other parts of the country. This includes visitors from the NCR bubble or Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal. These places are now under General Community Quarantine status.
Speaking on behalf of the Panglao Local Government Unit (LGU) and Tourism stakeholders, Councilor Aya Montero-Caindec said, “LGU Panglao is equipped to fully operate with our established health and safety guidelines governing the businesses, tourists and local residents to mitigate the spread of virus in our island.”
“If we must, we will again adapt the tourism bubble strategy to ensure a conditioned balance of priority of health and safety and fully work towards unimpeded resuscitation of our tourism economic recovery,” she added.
AirAsia and business groups support leisure travel for Boracay island
The Boracay Chamber of Commerce or BCC has joined the call by appealing to prioritize tourism workers. If you can recall, Boracay AirAsia commercial flights were full prior to the surge. This draws a complete picture of how many do want to travel and visit their favorite travel destinations. Despite having a lot of people going to “the island”, restrictions have caused Boracay a whopping 24-million pesos revenue loss in 2020. Compared to the same month in 2020, tourism in Boracay fell by 80% in 2021.
Due to all these losses, the BCC has called upon the local government and Department of Tourism (DOT) to open up the island to international bubbles in order to restart the economy. Boracay’s economic activities heavily relies on tourism. They also called upon for the resumption of regular flights to the island. Who airline would not want to support this? This is exactly why AirAsia now supports the call.
AirAsia support the call and pitches in some ideas
AirAsia Philippines has always been supportive for the reopening of domestic travel and tourism. As such, they have also pitched in some ideas which may help. We all know that the greatest concern when reopening travel and tourism is the spread of covid-19. Hence, great planning and execution is needed in order to control the virus.
According to AirAsia, existing health and safety protocols from each touch points such as the submission of a negative RT-PCR test and the use of the QR code for contact tracing will greatly contribute to the confidence of travelers.
As of 17 May 2021, there are only 10 active cases in the island of Boracay. Panglao Island on the other hand registered 16 asymptomatic cases. Covid cases in the NCR meanwhile continue to drop with a reproduction rate of 0.57 according to health research sources.
“Undeniably, tourism is the bread and butter of these island destinations. Our efforts of putting high value safety are slowly paying off. As with our past experiences, the tourism bubble has been proven to be an effective measure in keeping the balance between opening economic activities and ensuring the well being of everyone. AirAsia will continue to do its part in observing the highest standards of safety in air travel, and will support initiatives from our key industry stakeholders as we move towards the process of recovery.”
Steve Dailisan, AirAsia spokesperson
