“The early bird catches the early worm.”
Even as the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to hound local businesses, the Baguio Tourism Council (BTC), this early, is already mapping out ways to revitalize the once vibrant local tourism industry.
At City Hall, June 29, the BTC approved a resolution detailing ₱6-Million worth of tourism projects with the end of promoting the city not only as a prime destination, but more importantly, a safe one.
The BTC is co-chaired by Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong and businesswoman Gladys Vergara-de Vera.
The resolution was endorsed to the State-owned Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), which earlier set-aside the budget for the campaign.
These, in anticipation of looser national measures which is expected to revive the ailing tourism industry, under strict health measures requiring use of facemasks and observance of physical distancing.
The ₱6-million is broken down as follows: Baguio’s rebranding, marketing and promotions, ₱2.86-million; put up of the Baguio Creative City website, ₱1.17-million; holding of the “Relive Your Baguio Memories Photo Contest”, ₱105,000; and, staging of the “Baguio Fashion Sense” project, ₱400,000.
Earlier, Magalong endorsed to the TPB groundworks for tourism revitalization and readiness, including activities the city and the BTC will be pursuing for the remainder of 2020.
For her part, Vergara-De Vera underscored, a memorandum of agreement will be crafted to delineate the duties and responsibilities of concerned parties in order to facilitate immediate release of the TPB funding support and soonest implementation of the project.
Tourism data shows, Baguio City failed to realize 540,000-domestic tourist arrivals this year because of the pandemic. The figure is based on guests received by 299-hotels in 2019.
After the cancellation of the Panagbenga, tourist arrivals dipped by almost 81-percent in February.
A void in tourist arrivals for the months of April and May translated to at least ₱1.7-billion in unrealized tourist receipts. *Dexter A. See