THE DEPARTMENT of Tourism announced Wednesday that it is resuming the subsidy program for coronavirus testing for domestic leisure trips after travel restrictions were lifted between the NCR-Plus and areas under a general quarantine level.
Residents of NCR-Plus (National Capital Region), composed of the capital Metro Manila and nearby provinces, are now allowed to go on a point-to-point trip to destinations under general community quarantine.
A negative Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction or RT-PCR test result is required for travel to most local destinations.
Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat in a statement said the subsidy will help boost tourism spending. “The subsidy aims to encourage domestic travel by aiding the tourists in fulfilling the RT-PCR test requirement, and to enable them to visit their destination of choice at a lesser cost,” Ms. Puyat said.
A P35.17-million budget under the Tourism Promotions Board has been allocated for the subsidies this year.
Subsidized tests are available at the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) in Manila and the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC) in Quezon City.
The Tourism department said while the current partnerships with the two testing laboratories runs from January to June, the board plans to ink a new agreement with the PCMC to extend the program to December.
Tourism revenues last year dropped 83% to P81.4 billion after pandemic-related restrictions prompted a significant decline in foreign visitors. — Jenina P. Ibañez