Senator Nancy Binay on Thursday called on the Department of Tourism (DOT) to extend its marketing and training support to all tourism-ready sites now that travel restricitons are continually being eased.

Binay said the DOT should start enabling the tourism industry by giving them marketing support to recover market share and bring back visitor confidence and awareness, rebuild human resource by providing trainings and help the local government units (LGUs) in upgrading their local tourism plans and make it compliant to “new normal.”

“I believe that once we are able to meet and fix the key performance indices in the tourism industry in the new normal setting, the country’s economy has a bigger chance of steadily recovering,” Binay said.

“This is why I am urging the DOT to provide all the necessary promotional support through marketing and advertising specially to tourism-ready destinations, and support the staff of tour establishments with trainings so they can be fully-compliant as far as health protocols are concerned,” said the Senate Committee on Tourism chief.

DOT counterparts in the provinces may also start mapping tourism sites and establishments to check their compliance when it comes to health protocol standards, structural/configurational retrofitting, staff orientation, and contact tracing measures, the senator pointed out.

The lawmaker cited the recently concluded Panagbenga 2022 Baguio Flower Festival, which managed to attract 45,000 tourists during its last weekend alone, as an example.

"We visited Baguio and La Trinidad during the last weekend of Panagbenga. We saw how tourism boosted the business climate of the city and how eager tourists are to visit the locations even in the absence of the usual events like street dancing and the flower float parades,” she said.

“At nakakatuwa na bumalik na rin yung mga trabaho at negosyo sa turismo (It’s also nice to see that jobs and the businesses in tourism has returned).

“I believe Philippine tourism needs to be revved up through well thought-out promotions so we can help the industry return to its vigor. But the industry itself needs all the help it can get to become more resilient,” she pointed out.

Binay also stressed it is imperative for the Philippines to gain reputation of being “tourism-ready” even in the “new normal context.”