By Hanah Tabios Despite the suspension of tourism activities, an official of the Department of Tourism (DOT) said the hotel sub-sector industry was able to survive during the COVID-19 pandemic as 478 accommodation establishments across the National Capital Region (NCR) were able to operate for select guests. DOT-NCR Regional Director Woodrow Maquiling Jr. (Facebook) Among the sectors availing of the service since the imposition of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) were returning overseas Filipinos (OFs), repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), health workers, and those who work for essential industries operating during the lockdown. According to DOT-NCR Regional Director Woodrow Maquiling Jr., the tourism department successfully kept open 478 hotels, with a total of 56,871 rooms in the inventory. “Now, we have 25,000 freed-up rooms already and we only have a 56 percent rate occupancy,” Maquiling said, citing the latest figures recorded by the DOT-NCR in Thursday’s (June 4) Laging Handa public briefing. Aside from providing accommodation assistance, Maquiling added that they have also assisted 30,347 foreign and domestic tourists by arranging sweeper flights for them back to their home countries after they were stranded in tourism hotspots like Boracay Island, Siargao Island, Palawan, and Cebu. “We were also able to assist 'yung mga sweeper boats galing sa (sweeper boats from) different regions po. We assisted as many as six sweeper boats via 2GO, especially from Palawan and Mimaropa region,” he added. Meanwhile, through the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), Maquiling said DOT-NCR also distributed around 5,000 hygiene kits to the returning OFWs billeted in some accredited quarantine facilities.