Tourism Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar
LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
TOURISM Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar yesterday said he is not happy with the country’s tourism arrival numbers since border restrictions were softened, adding the pandemic has made fewer people want to travel.
“Of course I’m not happy with the numbers because they’re not even close to what they were in 2019. We’re a (glimmer) of our former self. There are impediments to travel, there is the need to get a PCR test within five days which we extended to seven days over the Christmas, there’s the need to get a visa and pay for a visa,” he said.
“All of these are impediments to travel, but we feel that that’s keeping the level of community spread to an acceptable level and so as we rolled out on the first of November, we’ve kind of maintained a relatively low number of COVID cases and a relatively low number of people in the hospital. Read more >>