BAGUIO CITY – The country’s Summer Capital will set a threshold on tourist arrivals to avoid complications arising from allowing too many leisure travelers.

Mayor Benjamin Magalong said the city government will see up to what extent the city can take in tourists without sacrificing the convenience of both the residents and the visitors.

"To determine the threshold for tourists, we are now monitoring and looking at how far we can go in terms of the number of tourists to be allowed vis-a-vis the traffic situation, crowd movement and capacity, and our ability to still implement physical distancing and other protocols especially at the various convergence points like Session Road, night market and the city market,” he said.

“Setting the threshold could help us ensure that tourism would not create any discomfort to the residents and even to the tourists,” he added.

Magalong said this could be the springboard for more concrete actions to achieve sustainable tourism where other negative effects of overtourism like destruction of the environment, culture, and quality of life of the people are also addressed.

City Tourism Officer Aloysius Mapalo said that after the city lowered the tourist limit to 4,000 due to the city's Alert Level 3 status last January, the city’s actual tourist arrivals dropped sharply to 39,507 as compared to December 2021’s record of 147,145.

“We are just starting to see an increase this February with 46,676 arrivals from Feb. 1-20,” he said.

To rev up tourism anew, the city eased up some restrictions like maximizing the allowed capacity for hotels and other accommodation establishments subject to strict triaging and observation of the established health protocols.

The city also stepped up the visita.baguio.gov.ph registration system by requiring Authorized Persons Outside of Residence (APORs) and other essential travelers who are staying in hotels and accommodation establishments to register with the leisure travel site instead of the usual hdf.baguio.gov.ph site.

This will help strengthen the monitoring and recording of travelers availing of the city’s tourism facilities and the real time data will help in ascertaining the tourist threshold.