An ‘All-Year-Round Tourist Destination’. That’s what tourists call the City of Pines.
Evidence is the number of tourist arrivals for every long weekend which ranges from 20,000 to 40,000 according to the Tourist Police Unit of Baguio City Police Office.
Over a hundred thousand tourists are even being expected by the Department of Tourism-Cordillera to arrive in the city.
With these numbers, businesses especially those who are located at tourist destinations see more opportunities to earn.
Transient houses and hotels are also already fully booked.
As much as it positively looks, heavy traffic is still a problem for many including residents who find it hard to find taxis and jeepneys going home.
Even the tourists who expected to enjoy their vacations find the traffic as a problem.
But one more thing they’ve been complaining about is the long lines for parking lots in the city.
“Gutom na pero no choice tayo…walang parking na iba”, Roslan Midon, a tourist complained as he lines up for almost 2 hours just to get a parking spot at Burnham Park.
According to Elisa Putenek, parking attendant of Burnham Park Parking Area, their collection had tripled especially this holiday season even if not every car was given a parking spot.
To ease the problem of parking space scarcity, the Traffic Enforcement Unit (TEU) of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) requests universities around the Central Business District to open up their parking areas to tourists.
“Dahil nga po holiday, ipa-follow up sa 27 yung request sa DEPED and hopefully ma-approve yung doon sa apat na schools na nasulatan namin”, PLTCol. Zacarias Dausen, Chief of TEU BCPO said.
As of the moment, there are only 2700 parking slots ar the Central Business District of Baguio.
In case the proposed Multilevel Parking Building of Baguio gets the approval of the council and residents, City Administrator Engr. Bonifacio Dela Peña says the problem will be solved as there will be an additional 22,000 parking slots for Baguio.
For now, authorities are implementing traffic schemes and still implementing the number coding scheme despite the holidays.
