PAINFUL AFTERMATH: Erratic boat trips continue to drag Guimaras tourism

By: Emme Rose Santiagudo

THE island province of Guimaras is still reeling, directly and indirectly, from the after effects of the Iloilo Strait tragedy on Aug 3, 2019, which killed 31 passengers on board the three motor boats.

The incident prompted the suspension of motor banca operations for more than a week.

The Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) lifted the suspension after a week and allowed the motor bancas plying from Iloilo to Jordan and Buenavista, Guimaras and vice versa to resume operations but under strict protocols.

The boat trips were subjected to a set of conditions such as all tarpaulins/canvass of motor boats shall either be rolled-up or removed; motor bancas shall carry passengers up to 75 percent of their authorized capacity only; and boat trips are only allowed from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Passengers have since then clamored of heat or rain that they had to endure during boat trips. Bad weather also forced frequent suspension of boat trips, which affected business and personal transactions of passengers.

The uncertain boat trips also downed the tourism industry in Guimaras.

Guimaras Governor Samuel Gumarin confirmed in an interview on Thursday that their tourism industry declined by more than 80 percent after the incident.

“We are still experiencing difficulty. Sa subong nag-naog ang tourism industry sang Guimaras by more than 80 percent,” he said.

Regional Director of the Department of Tourism (DOT) in Western Visayas, Atty. Helen Catalbas also cited the significant decrease of tourist arrivals in the province.

According to Catalbas, several tour group visits to the island province were cancelled.

“The effect is really negative for Guimaras. I have information that some if not all DOT-accredited tour operators that have groups scheduled to visit Guimaras have cancelled,” she said in a press conference on Wednesday.

Catalbas said that the uncomfortable transportation experience on top of the uncertainty of water transportation dramatically affected the tourism industry of the province.

“It is because of uncertainty of the availability of water transportation. The visit of tourists is limited in time and specific schedules should fit in their visit but now with drizzle, lightning and the heat during fair weather when there are trips of pump boats, many of them don’t want to be exposed to the scorching heat of the sun. So, both ways fair and bad weather are still not favorable (for the tourist),” she lamented.

While there are a number of fast crafts serving the Iloilo to Guimaras route, Catalbas said that the waiting time is not conducive for tourists going to Guimaras.

“Fast crafts are big but they have to wait for certain number of passengers to go and it wouldn’t be feasible to charter that just to cross the channel to Guimaras Strait to take a tour,” she added.

To address the declining tourism industry in the province, Catalbas announced that DOT-6 will hold a consultation and updating session within the month together with MARINA, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), local government units (LGUs), tour operators, and other tourism stakeholders in the province.

According to Catalbas, the goal of the session is to re-strategize and plan out on how to promote the province.

“We will ask them in the face of all constraints what should we do and how should we reposition Guimaras as a tourist destination. Looking at this background, what should the tourist sector do? Should we stop for a while promoting Guimaras until it has fixed its problem or despite all the problems, we keep on promoting but on certain conditions? And are we going to get the same sets of tourists like the group tours, if we are going to target the group tours, how can we deal with this on and off trip of the pump boats. These are so many questions that we have to answer during the updating and consultations session,” Catalbas said.

Based on the partial data of DOT-6, Guimaras accounted for 68,636 of tourist arrivals for the first seven months of 2019.

Overall the region hosted 2,518,045 both domestic and foreign tourists, partial data indicated.

In January to September 2018, the island province catered to 87,209 tourists.