As many tourists remain reluctant to travel amid the prohibitive testing cost of the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), the Department of Tourism (DOT) is eyeing to create travel vouchers that would subsidize the cost of testing to a more affordable price.
In an interview aired over ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC), Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said the DOT will tie up with the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) for lower RT-PCR testing cost in a bid to revive the country’s tourism sector which suffered massive losses amid the COVID-19 crisis.
The hospital is currently charging P1,900 RT-PCR per test, with results out in 24 hours, according to Puyat.
Though many travelers welcome the reopening of some tourist destinations, some are still hesitant to book their trips as private laboratories would charge P4,500 per RT-PCR test on the average. Puyat added that some were even charging P10,000 to P11,000 per test.
“We will look at how to probably make travel vouchers because mura na ang P1,900 and gusto pa namin mas affordable (and we want it to be affordable),” she said.
“We are looking at making it parang subsidized (at) 50 percent of the RT-PCR in UP-PGH,” she added, citing that the DOT will enter a government-to-government agreement soon.
“Kasi (because) that's what we've been looking for the longest time kasi (because) we want people, especially now na magpaPasko, to be able to travel.”
The tourism chief had earlier welcomed the initiative of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC), through its chair Sen. Richard Gordon, to reduce the testing price of RT-PCR to help boost tourism.
During the plenary hearing on the 2021 Fiscal Year budget of the DOT, Gordon told the senators and tourism officials that the humanitarian organization will be reducing the testing price to the lowest possible. From the average testing price of P4,000, he said that the PRC will bring it down to P3,300 and eventually to P3,200 to allow more people to get tested.
This, as RT-PCR test remains the "gold standard" testing procedure as a requirement for domestic travel.
Puyat has actively asked for cooperation among Department of Health (DOH)-accredited facilities to make antigen and RT-PCR testing more affordable to encourage domestic travel and help restore livelihood to tourism areas.
The tourism chief is also hoping for eventual uniform travel requirements from local government units in time for the reopening of the country’s tourist destinations.
Baguio City, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Palawan, and Siargao Island are the major tourism sites that recently reopened to local tourists, but she emphasized that the LGUs in these areas are the ones determining the necessary travel requirements, except for Boracay which falls under the jurisdiction of the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force (BIATF).
In the same interview, she revealed that the DOT will pilot an app that would require uniform travel requirements in Region 1 provinces and Baguio City.
“It's confusing and we want ease of travel. So we're working on that,” she said.
Meanwhile, asked if the Philippines would soon accept foreign leisure travelers, Puyat said the return of balikbayans for the holiday season will serve as a dry run.
“We will see how it goes. With the minimum health and safety protocols in place, we will be finally accepting tourists from other countries,” she said.
The DOT is eyeing first for the short haul market where it will explore the possibility of creating travel bubbles among neighboring Southeast Asian countries, which happens to be the Philippines’ top tourist markets like South Korea and China.
“We are going to test that. If all goes well, we can think of opening up to other countries with the travel bubble concept with direct flights,” she added.