FLYING HOME AT LAST. Staff from the Department of Tourism hand tokens to tourists stranded by movement restrictions at the Tacloban Airport. Some 62 foreign tourists who were barred from travelling due to the health crisis left this city on Saturday (April 18, 2020) through a Cebu-bound sweeper flight. (Photo courtesy of DOT Region 8)
TACLOBAN CITY – Some 62 foreign tourists stranded by movement restrictions left this city on Saturday through a Cebu-bound sweeper flight arranged by the Department of Tourism (DOT).
These tourists include 26 Australian, seven Canadian, six American, four Korean, four Swedish, four New Zealander, three German, two Dutch, two Finish, one Danish, one Norwegian, one Indian, and one British.
A Philippine Airlines aircraft carried these tourists to Cebu for a connecting flight to Manila. They are the third batch of stranded foreign tourists assisted by the tourism department and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.
"To make sure they are safe on their way home, we will be sending them emails regularly," DOT Eastern Visayas Regional Director Karina Rosa Tiopes said in an interview on Sunday.
The DOT also asked tourism officers to check on stranded tourists while waiting for their schedule to leave the region.
"This was the least that we could do to somehow ease their anxieties of being far from home," Tiopes added.
On their departure day, the DOT gave each of them a simple token and a note to convey their thanks for their visit and hope they still enjoyed their stay despite the pandemic.
Tiopes added the tourists are eager to come and visit back the region once the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is over.
This is the third batch of stranded tourists assisted by the regional office of the tourism department in the region.
The first batch is made up of 57 foreign stranded tourists who left the region on March 27, while the second batch is composed of 13 European tourists who were flown to Manila on April 11. (PNA)
