MISAMIS OCCIDENTAL (PIA) — Department of Tourism (DOT)-10 Regional Director Marie Elaine S. Unchuan assured that despite some limitations for international tourists, the region is safe and domestic tourism is steadily rising.
This comes after an Australian tourist asked on social media if Misamis Occidental is safe since their insurance doesn’t cover it.
In the seventh episode of Kapihan sa Bagong Pilipinas, Unchuan revealed that embassy advisories imposed certain limitations, and despite the possibility of unrelated mishaps such as physical accidents or sickness during travel, their insurance does not provide coverage.
“Karon arang-arang na lang man ang embassies, they downgraded the travel advisories, but sauna amo lage hunahuna, if we cannot market to countries where we have travel advisories, dili pud nato sila mapugos kay lisod pud kung magkasakit sila or maaksidente sila, dili man pud mu-cover,” Unchuan said.
(Now the embassies are getting better; they downgraded the travel advisories, but before, we thought that if we cannot market to countries where we have travel advisories, we can’t force them because it will be difficult if they get sick or they encounter accidents; they will not be covered.)
While the department currently concentrates on the arrivals of Balikbayans or Overseas Working Filipinos (OFWs), it will continue to direct its tourism promotion efforts towards international markets. “They want to come home always, and Filipinos want to come home to their hometown,” she said.
From January to June 2024, there were a total of 388,417 tourist arrivals. Although there was a dip in tourist arrivals during the pandemic, in 2022–2023, there was a staggering increase from 1,600,927 to 2,595,870, respectively.
The DOT-10 has more than 10 inter- and inter-regional tour circuits. “We are constantly working with the Mindanao regions to promote that; as a matter of fact, I was just in Davao the other day to support our dive tourism circuit by attending the Davao dive festival, and in turn, they have promised to come to Camiguin and Misamis Oriental to promote our diving as well,” the director said.
The tourism director also urged northern Mindanaoans to be tourism ambassadors themselves to explore the region first before going to other countries or other places in the country. “Huwag maging dayuhan sa (Don’t be an alien in) northern Mindanao,” she said. (JMOR/PIA-10)
