BAGUIO CITY – Accommodation establishments in the city will be compelled to submit data on tourist arrivals to the City Tourism and Special Events Division for the city to obtain accurate statistics on tourist influx.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong issued Executive Order No. 172 series of 2019 mandating all punong barangays to require all hotels, resorts, apartelles, pension houses, inns, transient houses and similar establishments to first acquire a certification from the tourism division under the Office for City Administration that they have submitted the required data before they can be issued a barangay business clearance.
This is in line with of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Ordinance No. 120 series of 2017 which mandates the establishments to religiously submit standard data on tourist arrivals.
This is also in compliance to Republic Act No. 9593 or the Tourism Act of 2009 which stresses on Local Tourism Development Planning and mandates local government units to provide reports periodically on the status of tourism statistics and inventory of resources to the Department of Tourism “to ascertain the economic and social impact of tourism.”
Apart from imposing the certificate requirement, the mayor also directed the punong barangays and the Barangay Tourism Councils to periodically update and submit the tourism office an inventory of accommodation establishments like hotels, condotels, serviced residences, resorts, apartelles, motels, pension houses, homestay sites, tourist inns, transient lodging houses and similar ones in their respective barangays.
They were also asked to ensure that all of these establishments are periodically submitting their reports.
Earlier records said only 120 of the 175 hotels, inns and transient houses registered with the city are complying with the ordinance and religiously submitting data.
The city needs to get the support of all of these establishments to be able to come up with accurate data on the number of tourists coming up to the City on a year-round basis to serve as basis in planning for the future development programs for the city./Aileen P. Refuerzo
