The Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) welcomes with caution the decision of the national government to allow the resumption of travel agency operations in general community quarantine (GCQ) and modified GCQ areas but it emphasized that it would only resume operations when there is already a reasonable demand for travel among Filipinos.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has released Memorandum Circular No. 20-53 Series of 2020 that recategorized economic activities from Category IV to Category III.
Under the MC, travel agencies, tour operators, reservation service, and related activities are allowed to reopen at 50 percent operational capacity for areas placed under the General Community Quarantine (GCQ) and 100 percent capacity for areas placed under modified GCQ.
Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said this will provide an option for travel agencies and tour operators who have been waiting for several months to restart their respective businesses and help restore livelihood.
However, PTAA President Ritchie Tuano said travel agencies might be initially cautious and only resume operations when there is already a reasonable demand for travel among Filipinos that will allow them to sufficiently cover overhead costs of their operations.
Jose Clemente III, president of the Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP), also echoed Tuano's sentiment, citing that there is a “mixed bag” for the tourism stakeholders regarding the development.
“While some companies may opt to reopen already, there are also companies that will choose to remain closed due to financial and health concerns. There will be costs involved in reopening but little business coming in for now. There will be companies that will choose to stay closed until steady income is expected,” he said, stressing that the lack of international visitor arrivals will not make resumption of travel agencies operations feasible this time.
“At this stage, kahit domestic travel (even domestic travel) is still tepid,” he added.
“We have to rebuild consumer confidence to travel plus people may not yet be ready to travel from a financial standpoint. Konti pa lang ang (only a few are) willing to travel.”
The PTAA asked for public understanding as financial liquidity is still a big concern for travel agencies.
“The PTAA is still in the process of assisting its members gain access to the financial packages and soft loans provided in Bayanihan 2 and get airline refunds that have dated for more than six months now,” Tuano said.