Holy Week crowd management assessed

Baguio City fared well in managing the traffic and the crowd during the Holy Week rush.

Mayor Benjamin Magalong said a post-event assessment showed that crowds were managed properly despite the influx of tourists during the four-day rush resulting in minimal traffic, crowding and air quality problems.

“We expected to encounter a tough time dealing with traffic and human gridlocks for the duration but as it turned out we only had traffic issues at the central business district but not in the outskirts.  Crowd movement was okay except at the night market.  But all of these were fixed immediately with our contingency measures,” the mayor said.

The mayor said the city prepared exigencies like the deployment of more policemen and volunteers from the various civic and communication groups who ensured smooth traffic flow and provided motorist assistance.

Traffic rerouting, road recovery and widening and sidewalk improvement projects also helped ease vehicle flow and people mobility, the mayor said.

City Tourism Officer Engr. Aloysius Mapalo said a total of 87,262 tourists came up to the city from April 14 to April 17 broken down as follows: Apr. 14 — 40,612; Apr. 15 — 19,019; Apr. 16 — 18,844; and Apr. 17 — 8,787.

Around 45 percent of the arrivals availed of the services of accommodation establishments and hotels for two to three days while the rest stayed with relatives or friends or were day visitors only.The mayor said the city continues to monitor and address situations on crowd movement, traffic and air quality in line with its goal to achieve sustainable tourism where the plights of the residents, tourists and economy are addressed. – Aileen P. Refuerzo