AirAsia has supported calls from business groups and local government units to allow leisure travel subject under a strict tourism for island destinations such as Panglao and Boracay.
“Undeniably, tourism is the bread and butter of these island destinations. Our efforts of putting high value safety are slowly paying off,” said AirAsia Philippines spokesperson Steve Dailisan.
“As with our past experiences, the tourism bubble has been proven to be an effective measure in keeping the balance between opening economic activities and ensuring the well-being of everyone,” he added.
The Panglao Tourism Council in Bohol earlier committed to manage tourist arrivals from various parts of the country, including those from the NCR Plus area (Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, and Laguna) which is now under general community quarantine with heightened restrictions.
“Panglao is equipped to fully operate with our established health and safety guidelines governing the businesses, tourists, and local residents to mitigate the spread of virus in our island,” said Councilor Aya Montero-Caindec.
“If we must, we will again adapt the tourism bubble strategy to ensure a conditioned balance of priority of health and safety and fully work towards unimpeded resuscitation of our tourism economic recovery,” she added.
The Panglao Tourism Council is set to convene on Friday, May 21, together with the Panglao Chamber of Commerce and Industry to formalize the request to reopen tourism in the island.
The LGU is proposing to include tourism frontliners in the vaccination roll-out to boost confidence of tourists who plan to visit Panglao, which reported a loss of P124 million in gross tourism receipts in April due to the pandemic.
The Boracay Chamber of Commerce also appealed for the inclusion of tourism workers in the priority vaccine rollout on the island.
DOT Region 6 earlier reported that Boracay lost P49 billion in potential tourism revenues in 2020 because of the travel restriction.
In January 2021, tourism arrival in the island also fell 80 percent because of the pandemic.
“We know that travelers both domestic and abroad are very eager to return to Boracay. By vaccinating the priority list as well as all tourism workers, we can confidently open-up tourism on a broader scale, restart the sleeping economic profit engine, and the Department of Tourism (DOT) can promote the ‘Crown Jewel of the Philippine Tourism’ as #VaccinatedBoracay confidently, loud and proud,” said BCC President Wesley van der Voort.
In its position paper dated May 5, the Boracay Chamber of Commerce and Industry called upon the provincial government and the DOT to open up the island to international bubbles to restart the economy.
The chamber also called for the resumption of unimpeded regular flights to the island.
As of May 17, 2021, there are only 10 active cases in the island of Boracay. Panglao Island, on the other hand, registered 16 asymptomatic cases.
Dailisan, for his part, said AirAsia will continue to do its part in observing the highest standards of safety in air travel.
“We will continue to support initiatives from our key industry stakeholders as we move towards the process of recovery,” he said.
AirAsia’s efforts by going above and beyond the protection of its passengers against COVID-19 have earned the airline a perfect 7-star rating from Airlineratings.com.