The municipality of Taytay is fine-tuning its plans to reopen its tourist attractions by developing a tracking system using what it calls a “pasaporte” or “tourist passport.”
Taytay tourism officer Joie Matillano described the “pasaporte” as a multi-purpose document that will be issued to tourists when they pay the conservation and sustainable tourism fee (CSTF) presently required by the municipality.
The passport will allow tourists to gain access to the town’s attractions while at the same time enabling the municipality to track their movements through the bar code that is scanned from the passport when they go to a destination.
It will also serve as a guide to the attractions of Taytay as it also serves as a brochure containing information useful to visitors.
“Instead of issuing tickets, we are giving something to the tourists that is more valuable as a souvenir and is useful for Taytay tourism related stuff, pretty much including all the important information needed by the tourists to include easy monitoring of CSTF. Also, it can be more effective in the monitoring of tourist arrival and departure including contact tracing,“ Matillano said.
He explained that all the sites visited will have a corresponding stamp and passport will be scanned for recording purposes. Matillano said the municipal tourist passports are all in access to LGU-owned and managed tourist sites and are not for sale.
“What the tourist are paying for is the Conservation and Sustainable Tourism Fee (CSTF) na we issued before through ticket but we opted for this ‘pasaporte’ na lang. Also, magtatalaga kami ng staff sa entrance at exit upang doon pa lang his/her passport shall be stamped,“ he added.
According to Matillano, the 26 pages ‘pasaporte’ size would also serve as guide material when exploring in Taytay where important information about its culture, history and its attractions, to include banking, restaurants, hotels, emergency numbers to call, are presented in one through this ‘tourist passport’.
“There will be a page dedicated to perforated promo tickets that will give tourists discounts in accommodation facilities, restaurants, travel agencies, and even transportation fares in town. This is to encourage our local tourism establishments to check on the passports of our tourists, both tourists and tourism establishments get incentives,“ he added.
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