By Analou De Vera
The Department of Tourism (DOT) on Wednesday assured that it will provide assistance to stakeholders of the country’s tourism industry amid the threat of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Department of Tourism (MANILA BULLETIN)
“To cushion the impact, the DOT and its attached agencies, even before the lockdown, laid out the response and recovery plan during the initial stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, with the tourism sector taking a direct hit early on,” said Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat in a statement.
One of the DOT's responses include the "implementation of a moratorium on the collection of accreditation fees from new and renewing applicants from Tourism Enterprises (TEs) and Tourism-Related Enterprises (TREs) for the year 2020," said Puyat.
It also waived the participation fees in international fairs and exhibitions between now and the end of 2021.
"Also among the immediate response of DOT was mounting its own 20 sweeper flights and assisting those embassies that helped many of the travel trade’s clients leave the country. As of April 14, the DOT was able to extend assistance to 19,898 foreign tourists and 1,456 domestic tourists," the agency said.
The DOT added that it assisted the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in looking for rooms for overseas Filipino workers, business process outsourcing companies, and bank workers.
As of April 13, the agency said that it was able to find a total of 13,116 rooms in Metro Manila for OFWs; and 25,687 rooms for BPO agents, bank workers, and health frontliners.
"The DOT also submitted to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) the list of displaced workers from various tourism-related enterprises for cash assistance," it said. "The agency likewise lobbied with the DOLE to include tourism frontliners among the recipients of hazard pay for the duration of the enhanced community quarantine, especially those who work at accommodation establishments that house health workers and repatriated overseas Filipino workers, and risk contamination to COVID-19."