SNEAK PEEK Students garbed in Cordillera attire and with flower-themed props perform a street dance in front of the Baguio City Hall on Monday as a preview to the main event for the tourist-drawing Panagbenga or Baguio Flower Festival that will be restaged in-person in late February next year. —NEIL CLARK ONGCHANGCO
MANILA, Philippines — A city official in Baguio City announced on Wednesday that this year’s visitor numbers had already reached unprecedented heights, surpassing even the busiest years before the 2009 pandemic.
Alec Mapalo, the tourism officer of Baguio, reported that the city had welcomed a stunning 1.7 million visitors this year. However, the number does not yet account for November and December.
Despite the global pandemic, tourist numbers have already surpassed the 1.5 million mark, which was recorded in 2019 before the COVID-19 outbreak.
“This just shows na nalalampasan na natin at nakikita na natin ang talagang desire ng ating mga kababayan na makapasyal na,” Mapalo said in a public briefing.
(This shows that we are surpassing pre-pandemic levels, and we see the desire of Filipinos to travel.)
However, even though tourist arrivals are skyrocketing, Mapalo said the city is still recovering from losses after two years of lockdowns and restrictions due to the pandemic.
He said tourism is one of the major industries in Baguio City, wherein it rakes in up to P7 billion in gross receipts per year.
“Imagine natin na ‘yun ang nawala for two years. At this point, nasa recovery stage pa rin tayo. Hindi pa natin talagang fully na-recover ‘yung mga losses ng previous years,” Mapalo said.
(Let’s imagine the amount we lost for two years. At this point, we are still in the recovery stage. We have not yet fully recovered the losses from the previous years.)
The Baguio official, however, expressed optimism that the city’s recovery rate can be expedited based on the current trends in tourist arrivals and traffic in its shopping centers.
“Marami nang nagreport sa atin na mga establishments gaya ng hotels and even ‘yung mga malls na nakikita na nila ang kanilang record-high, not only arrivals of guests but also food traffic in our shopping centers compared to 2019 before the pandemic,” he said.
(Many hotels and even malls have reported to us that they have already reached a record high in guests’ arrivals and food traffic in shopping centers compared to 2019 before the pandemic.)
“We are confident na ‘yung ating road to recovery at mapapabilis natin,” Mapalo added.
(We are confident that we can quicken our road to recovery.)