MANILA — After Boracay, the Department of Tourism (DOT) seeks to limit visitors entering other tourist destinations in the country for “sustainable tourism”.
In Boracay, an interagency group composed of the DOT, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government, had already announced the setting of a carrying capacity in the island once it reopens to tourists.
“Boracay will be sort of the pilot for what we call sustainable tourism,” DOT Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said in a segment in #MeetInquirer. “In Boracay alone, there will be a carrying capacity, meaning, we will be limiting the number of tourists entering Boracay and that will be our pilot for all other major tourist destinations.”
Puyat was initially asked on DOT’s plan to regain the beauty Baguio City, known as the City of Pines, that has environmental woes like inundation.
“I agree (that) it’s quite traffic (there) and of course we’ve heard what’s been happening to Burnham Park,” she said.
Currently, the agency is in touch with the city government of Baguio to discuss and address issues that the Philippines’ Summer Capital is said to be facing.
“We will continue to talk to them. There has to be, I don’t know (how) though, to be able to implement the carrying capacity in Baguio. Because you can go there by land, so it’s more of to talk to the local government,” Puyat said.
Meanwhile, on plans to conduct similar rehabilitation operations on other resort islands, the Tourism Secretary said there are no specific destinations mentioned for a major cleanup akin to Boracay yet. But the DOT expects all local governments to act on their own and comply with environmental laws.
“There was no specific name of tourist destination ever mentioned for rehabilitation,” she clarified.
“If you look at the State of the Nation of the president, he talks about all tourist destinations… Hindi lang Palawan and Puerto Galera, all tourist destinations have to follow environmental laws,” she said. (Joyce Ann L. Rocamora/PNA)
