The Philippines misplaced round P100 million in tourism revenues following the momentary shutdown of the nation’s airspace on account of a glitch within the air navigation visitors system of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), an economist stated Monday.
According to Mav Gonzales’ report on “24 Oras”, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) Chief economist Michael Ricafort stated the incident might harm the nation’s tourism sector which was hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Isa sa main development driver ‘yan, moving forward, yung tourism. Kasi isa sila sa pinaka-tinamaan ng pandemic. Napakaraming related na negosyo at industriya na naka-rely sa turismo,” said Ricafort.
(Tourism, moving forward, is one of the major growth drivers. They are among the sectors hard hit by the pandemic and there are a lot of businesses and industries relying on it.)
“‘Yung transportation…They also shop, eat out. Mga restaurant. Mga retailers that would be possibly affected. ‘Yung supply chain ng tourism, dugtong-dugtong ‘yun eh,” he said.
(An example is the transportation sector… and tourists also shop, and eat out at restaurants. Retailers are also possibly affected. Tourism has a supply chain, they are all interconnected.)
Malacañang earlier said it is conducting a thorough probe into the incident in which at least 282 flights were canceled, diverted, or delayed on New Year’s Day.
The technical problem also affected some 56,000 passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
“Kung na-traumatize sila medyo, eh may kompetisyon, may ibang bansa na pwede pagpilian na tourist destination. Baka maging konsiderasyon yun going forward kaya napaka-importante na seryosohin ito. Nandyan na ‘yun eh. ‘Yung accreditation, ranking, recommendation, ratings,” Ricafort added.
(If the passengers were traumatized it may affect us. Because there’s competitors with different international locations that may be chosen as vacationer locations. The incident could be a consideration, going ahead. So it’s very important we take this severely. There is the accreditation, rating, advice, and scores.)
The Department of Tourism (DOT) stated it had already activated its floor tourism personnel in varied airports within the nation to supply help to the affected passengers.
Senator Nancy Binay, the chairperson of the Senate Tourism Committee, likewise expressed concern on the incident and its impact on the tourism trade.
For his half, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista stated the airspace shutdown wouldn’t have an effect on the worldwide ranking of NAIA.
“‘Yung naging problema hindi naman problema ng paliparan ‘yan problema ‘yan ng Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines na sila ang naghahandle ng mga tinatawag po nating communication, navigational and surveillance air traffic management system so ito po ay kailangan ng airport sa buong Pilipinas at kailangan din ng koordinasyon ng airport sa ibang bansa kaya dapat po maayos natin itong sistemang ito,” Bautista said.
(The problem was not with airport but with the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines. They handle the communication, navigational, and surveillance air traffic management system and that’s what’s being utilized in airports within the nation. We additionally want coordination with different overseas nations so we have now to repair the system.) — Sundy Locus/BAP, GMA Integrated News
