HAS the Covidd-19 pandemic changed the face of Cordillera festivals?
Jovie Ganongan, officer-in-charge of the Department of Tourism-Cordillera (DOT–CAR), said new norms for the conduct of festivals all over the Cordillera will be set.
“We are dependent on the new normal regulation on the social distancing and prohibition of crowd drawing events and mass gathering. We have to wait until the contagion is controlled through whatever means, may it be mass testing, vaccine,” Ganongan said.
“Festivals, other gatherings and the like are part of the Filipino culture so, these will still be continued for sure but have to wait for the right time, when all these are resolved, we will certainly go back to normal with some guidelines to still follow,” Ganongan added.
The entire Cordillera has canceled most of its culture-based fiestas for the sake of safety and health with the biggest, the Baguio Flower Festival bowing out of its 2020 staging which was supposed to be on its silver offering.
Alec Mapalo, Baguio City tourism officer, presented proposals for new norms to be followed by establishments after restrictions are lifted.
“A national projection sees a recoiling in tourism industry may be seen January 2020, we are a little bit optimistic about this in Baguio,” said Mapalo.
Mapalo added planning for a new normal in the conduct of public events, community gatherings, and festivals, during transition, recovery and post-recovery period, which will include a new set of standards for the conduct of the Baguio Flower Festival.
Meetings with stakeholders are in place for the new norms.
“There will be guidelines for very small gatherings (after ECQ and GCQ is lifted) which include tributes to frontliners, possible celebrations of flag day / Independence Day, seminars for tourism establishments on how to develop new normal as well as bouncing back seminars,” the tourism officer said revealing planned programs on how to prepare for life after a pandemic as restrictions are seen to slowly ease up.
Mapalo added planning is also done for a new Baguio visitors’ program when the city is ready to accept visitors which include a new management system for tourists while underscoring preparations for guidelines in the partial opening of restaurants.
The city official added with basic health considerations like conforming to health department standards, sanitation procedures, PPE requirements, monitoring and logging of visitors/guests profile must be in place, monitoring of health conditions of visitors/guests must be in place with basic guidelines for small gatherings with conformance with national and local government directives on social distancing being taken into priority.
He said new guidelines will be crafted for the operations of tourism-oriented and tourism-related establishments, during transition, recovery and post-recovery period.
A new city tourism management program has also been drafted with request for legislation to follow to enforce strictly the program.
Mapalo is asking to amend the City Tourism Code of 2009 for the inclusion of the sustainable, responsible and green tourism concepts and the adoption of a new Baguio Convention Center operations policies and guidelines.
The tourism officer also asked for a strict registration and standard regulation for all tourism-oriented and tourism-related establishments and individual practitioners as well as regulation and monitoring guidelines for tourism-oriented and tourism-related establishments and practitioners transacting and operating online, including online booking portals.
Under the new plan are mandated registration of all tourists coming to the city, setting guidelines for its mechanism and the collection of environmental and congestion fees from each registered tourist.
“When establishments accommodate dine in customers, there is a checklist of what they will consider when we allow the re-opening of establishments. We will also consider our problems in the past like traffic and over tourism to better manage better the arrivals,” Mapalo said.