THE country’s tour operators are still optimistic about the prospects of the tourism industry, despite the rising Covid-19 cases and emergence of new variants of the virus.
In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Philippine Tour Operators Association (Philtoa) president Cesar Cruz said, as of Monday, about 160 of its members “have submitted business permits [for 2021], meaning they still have the intention to proceed or continue with their business.” This accounts for some 62 percent of their 260 regular members.
But in the same breath, he added, many of those who have already secured business permits are anxious “how they will pay their [tax] assessment.” Most local government units based the tax assessments on the tourism establishments’ operations last year. However, many tourism businesses would have likely earned only in the first quarter of the year, as the nationwide lockdown began on March 17.
More Philtoa members are continuing to submit their copies of their business permits that Cruz hopes this will eventually reach 220 companies in total. “If 220 companies are still hanging on at this point, these are the companies that [government financial institutions like] SB Corporation should be supporting,” he stressed. Unfortunately, he noted, “We have heard from others who have already borrowed from SB Corp [Small Business Guarantee Corp.] and they were lent just P70,000, which is too small for a tour and travel agency.”
Cruz said loan amounts should be in the region of some “P500,000” for tour and travel agencies to survive, and to keep operating in this pandemic. He added some of his members have borrowed, but many are discouraged because of the low loan amounts, and the possibility they won’t also be able to repay said loans.
He said that, hopefully, these issues will be threshed out and SB Corporation will relax its loan guidelines to enable more tourism companies to tap its CARES for Travel financing facility. As of March 31, 2021, SB Corporation has approved P129.12 million in loans for 346 applicants. Of the approved applications, some P90.12 million has been released to 260 tourism enterprises/loan applicants.
The approved loan amounts, however, are just 2.1 percent of the P6 billion in funds allocated for working capital loans of the tourism sector under Bayanihan 2. SB Corp, a GFI under the Department of Trade and Industry, has been tapped as the conduit for the loans. (See, “Struggling Tourism Firms Need Higher Working Capital Loans To Recover,” in the BusinessMirror, April 8, 2021.)
In the continuing survey on the survivability of their members’ operations, which Philtoa started last November, only five or six companies were found to have “totally closed.”
Meanwhile, Cruz said, when the National Capital Region “returns to a situation before the new round of lockdowns,” Philtoa recommends a visit to destinations such as Clark in Pampanga, Bulacan, the Calabarzon region, Palawan, especially El Nido, Puerto Galera, Ilocos Norte, and Boracay. “We would rather people travel by land in the meantime, which is easier than to ride planes, where passengers have to contend with a lot more requirements,” he underscored.
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