To help the government meet its goal of acquiring 9.2 million international tourist arrivals by yearend despite the novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD) outbreak, a Palace official said a catch-up plan could be put in place instead of immediately readjusting its targets.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles made this remark as Department of Tourism (DOT) Undersecretary Benito Bengzon Jr. revealed that there are no immediate plans to revise the tourism targets for this year.
“Obviously we want to keep the targets and adjust accordingly. So once this whole scare and situation is done, then magrere-calibrate lang siguro ang DOT (the DOT will just recalibrate) on how to catch up,” Nograles said during the Pandesal Forum in Quezon City.
“A catch-up plan would be better than totally reassess.”
“A catch-up plan would be better than totally reassess kaagad eh napaka-aga pa sa taon para mag (immediately because it’s too early in the year to) reassess,” the Cabinet official added.
Nograles suggested that a reassessment of tourism targets could be made if another incident different from the nCoV outbreak would later happen.
Nograles said that reassessment could probably take place after the second quarter.
The House committees on tourism and economic affairs have also started working with the DOT to assess the short- and medium-term effects of the 2019-nCoV “to ensure that tourism growth will not be derailed in the next few months.”
Data from the DOT showed that at least 1.63 million of the total 7.4 million international tourist arrivals from January to November of 2019 were Chinese nationals.
Chinese nationals are also considered the second biggest tourist spenders in the Philippines next to South Koreans, with the DOT noting that Chinese tourists spent $979.4 million or around P51 billion in the country in the first half of 2019.
Tourism accounts for around 2.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
Following reports that there have been flight cancelations coming from non-China markets, Nogales said that this was expected as governments were taking measures to limit unnecessary travel.
“I think that’s something that we would probably observe not just in the Philippines but in other countries as well,” he said.
“I won’t be surprised if it’s also affected travel to this side of the world.”
“I won’t be surprised if it’s also affected travel to this side of the world,” Nograles said, referring to East Asian countries.
On Feb. 2, President Rodrigo Duterte imposed a temporary travel ban on visitors coming from mainland China and its special administrative regions Hong Kong and Macao except for Filipinos.
Duterte also barred Filipinos from traveling to China, Hong Kong, and Macao for their protection against the deadly virus.
Currently, some 153 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus have been reported in 23 other countries.
The first death outside of China was reported in the Philippines. The patient, a 44-year-old Chinese man from Wuhan City in China’s Hubei province, died at the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila. Wuhan is the epicenter of the outbreak.
The World Health Organization has already declared the nCoV outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern.