Last updated on May 18th, 2021 at 05:27 am
The Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat stated that due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus or the COVID-19 from February to April, the Philippines is expected to lose P42 billion in tourism revenues from China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
Puyat declared during the public hearing the impact of COVID-19 on the Philippine economy, which is largely dependent on growth for the tourism sector.
The country is expected to lose P16bn of tourism revenues from the same areas of concern for February alone.
They announced that the Civil Aviation Board had already registered 465 flights canceled per week because of COVID-19, which has already killed more than 1,000 people in China.
The projected decrease in tourist arrivals from the affected markets would result in forgiven revenue that will continue until April this year.
The DOT is making efforts to cushion the impact. We are discussing rolling out more value added tour packages, reduced accommodation rates and marked down domestic flight prices.
