Science and Technology

and tours businesses, 64 tourist transport operators, and 218 other tourism enterprises classified as MICE facilities, eco-tour facilities, and tour guiding services.

Secondary tourism enterprises in the region were also affected by the pandemic. These include the 121 health and wellness services and 685 enterprises such as farm tourism sites, shopping malls, specialty shops, museums, galleries, restaurants, tourism recreational facilities, and tourism entertainment complex.

Tourism workforce were displaced. With barely no activity in the tourism industry, workforce in accommodation establishments, restaurants, and tourist transport service have lost their income. There are 149 DOT-accredited regional and community tour guides that were displaced due to the pandemic and most of them are not qualified to avail of DOLE’s CAMP and TUPAD program because they are free-lance/informal workers.

Repatriation assistance and transfer services were provided to stranded tourists. The evacuation operations initiated by the DOT-Region VI, in cooperation with LGUs and the foreign embassies, served 3,231 stranded tourists in the region as of May 27, 2020. These included 2,838 foreign tourists and 393 domestic tourists. Forty-five rescue missions were mounted in selected gateways including Caticlan, Iloilo City, Bacolod/Silay, and Sipalay.

With no commercial flights available, DOT-VI, with the assistance of the LGUs, initiated a total of 57 flights for stranded tourists in Panay and Negros Occidental and facilitated their transfer to designated airports in Cebu and Dumaguete where they could be repatriated to their home countries.

On top of the repatriation flights and transfer services, DOT-VI also distributed tourist care kits and vouchers to stranded foreign tourists and provided a total of PhP 500,000 cash assistance to 250 stranded domestic tourists at PhP 2,000 per person. However, despite the several rescue missions implemented there are still remaining 1,023 stranded tourists in the region, 653 of which are foreign and 370 are domestic (as of May 27, 2020).

Science and Technology During the ECQ, the Office of the Undersecretary for Regional Operations of the DOST conducted a nationwide online survey on the situation of the MSMEs that are beneficiaries of the DOST Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (SETUP). The firms were asked about the status of their operations and on their perceived capability to meet the refund requirements of the program during the ECQ.

Economic and opportunity losses were experienced by SET-UP MSMEs. The survey shows that although majority of the firms stopped operating, more than 50 percent of those that continued operating reported that their market reach was limited to their locality although a very small percentage still managed to bring their products outside of the regional boundaries. A majority of the firms responded that they may not be able to meet the refund requirements of the program for the next three months.