The city is now on the final stages in its preparations in the hosting of the North Luzon mini-travel fair on Tuesday, September 22, 2020 to be held at the Baguio Convention Center (BCC).
Supervising City Tourism Operations Officer Engr. Aloysius Mapalo said that no less than Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat will be the special guest in the formal launching of the ‘Ridge and Reef Baguio-Ilocos tours’ that will help in gradually, cautiously and safely open the local tourism industry as part of the overall plan to revive the economy in Northern Luzon.
Simultaneous with the conduct of the mini-travel fair that will go on until September 25, 2020 will be the launching of the Baguio Visitors Information and Travel Assistance (VISITA), the city’s online registration platform, where interested visitors could register and upload their itinerary of travel, test results, travel authority and pre-bookings in accredited accommodation establishments before coming up to the city.
Tourism industry stakeholders from Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte will be setting up their respective booths to aggressively promote their tourist spots open to prospective visitors from the established Baguio-Ilocos tourism corridor.
Initially, Pangasinan will be opening the tourist destinations in Manaoag, Alaminos City and Bolinao; La Union will be offering the tourist spots in Bauang and San Juan; Ilocos Sur will be opening the destinations in Bantay, Cauayan and Vigan City while Ilocos Norte will be making available the tour packages for the destinations in Laoag City, Paoay, Pagudpud and other similarly situated cities and municipalities that will be ready for their scheduled opening of their tourism industry.
Mapalo claimed Ilocos Norte is scheduled to launch the opening of the local tourism industry on October 1, 2020 while La Union will conduct their own launching on October 10, 2020.
He added that the other provinces will formally make the proper announcements on the opening of the tourism in their respective jurisdiction during the mini-travel fair as attractive tour packages from accredited tour operators will be made available for people interested to move around in the identified tourism corridor.
The city tourism officer emphasized that the opening of the tourism industry in the bubble will strictly follow the tour package scheme and that the established rules and regulations will be dynamic that could change anytime within the trial period to suit the interest of the greater majority of the populace.
Further, tourism officers also agreed to identify safe stopover points in the different local governments to ensure that visitors travelling within the bubble will be able to attend to the call of nature or other important needs while going to their desired destinations in the Baguio-Ilocos tourism corridor.
More importantly, tourists must present their reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) or antigen test results from their points of origin before their scheduled travel. By DEXTER A. SEE