Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat admired Baguio City’s resilience in meeting the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, turning it into a model city for containment.
(Department of Tourism / MANILA BULLETIN)
It is also among the earliest favored travel destinations to enter into tourism corridor arrangements with selected local government partners as a pathway toward reinvigorating the domestic tourism industry.
Speaking during the 111th Baguio City Charter Anniversary, Puyat underscored that the economy of the well-known Summer Capital of the Philippines is heavily dependent on tourism.
With the onset of the pandemic, however, tourism-related business continue to struggle
with the noticeable absence of visitors that used to enjoy boating across Burnham Lake or horseback riding at Wright Park.
Puyat lauded Baguio City’s prompt action to mitigate the harsh impact of the pandemic. She said Baguio City was one of the first local government units to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
As early as in January, Mayor Benjamin Magalong suspended the 2020 edition of the Panagbenga Festival, the city’s major crowd attracting event that is held customarily in February.
“Swift action and immediate compliance to lockdown measures averted what could have been a dire situation in the city, (together) with the rest of the Cordillera Administrative Region. Baguio city is now under modified general community quarantine,” the tourism chief said.
She noted that the low number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Baguio could also be attributed to the city's aggressive process of testing, tracing, and isolating the probable and suspected cases. This protocol continues to be strictly implemented even with the downgrading of the city’s community quarantine status.
According to Puyat, Baguio City has the highest testing rate per total population for any local government in the country and just as notably, the city has the highest ratio of contacts being traced for every COVID-19 case with up to 37 persons traced per patient.
She also noted that the World Health Organization (WHO) has also commended Baguio for its contact tracing strategy, stating that the city is far ahead in the process because local officials are closely working with health officials, thus, the same must be replicated in other local governments around the country.