TOURISM
Iriga City came alive as it celebrated its annual Tinagba
Festival Feb. 5- 11. Depicting an ancient Bicol first
harvest offering, the festival featured a caravan of
gaily-decorated bull carts/motorized floats, revelers in
mardi gras and native costumes who dance and parade around
the city.
Preparations are underway for the celebration of Magayon
Festival in Albay from April 1 to 30 this year. Magayon
Festival promises to be more colorful and exciting as the
events will be improved, said Senior Board Member Glenda Ong
Bongao, chairman of the Festival Executive Committee and
also chairman of the Committee on Tourism of the Sangguniang
Panlalawigan. (Bicol Mail, Feb. 12, 2009)
Tourist
arrivals in Bicol registered a growth rate of 45.59 per cent
over the 2007 figures, according to the Department of
Tourism (DOT) regional office.
A total of 1,306,792 tourists visited Bicol last year which
is 409,292 over the 2007 figures. Of the total number,
1,057,735 were domestic tourists while 249,237 were foreign
nationals.
Total
gross receipts generated by the tourism industry jumped to
P781,995,280 million from P443,558,400 million in 2007 or an
increment of 56.72 per cent.
Total
job generated reached 499,336 or 181,462 over the other
year.
The highest number of tourist arrivals last year was
registered by the province of Camarines Sur with a total of
721,024 comprising of 523,580 domestic and 197,444 foreign
or 55.167 per cent of the total tourist arrivals in Bicol.
Foreign tourist arrivals to Camarines Sur also top the six
provinces of Bicol hitting 79.21 per cent or a total of
249,237 foreign nationals that visited the region.
Albay was second in terms of tourist arrivals with 173,959;
Masbate, third with 166,784; Camarines Norte, fourth with
105,051; Sorsogon is fifth with 83,541; and Catanduanes,
sixth with 56,613.
In Camarines Sur, Gov. Luis Raymund Villafuerte officially
opened the Lago del Rey, the first ever and the biggest
manmade lake resort in the country at the 150-ha Capitol
Complex. The additional facility is projected to boost the
tourism industry not only in the province but in the region
as a whole.
On March 25-29, Camarines Sur took center stage in the
extreme sports limelight when the province partnered with
the World Wakeboard Association (WWA) in sponsoring the
five-day WWA Wake Park World Championships at the Camarines
Sur Watersports Complex (CWC).
Gov.
Villafuerte revealed that another episode of Survivor
reality show is in progress in Caramoan, Camarines Sur,
where the French survivor edition Koh Lanta had been
successfully filmed last year garnering 35 percent
viewership in Europe.
Governor
Sally A. Lee announced that the Department of Tourism (DOT)
has increased funding assistance to the Province of Sorsogon
by P1.5 million from P1 million. The P2.5 million will be
used for the establishment of various infrastructure and
other tourism projects. The grant was given under the
Expanded Grassroots Entrepreneurs for Eco-Tourism (GREET)
program of the DOT which had been conceived to enhance
livelihood opportunities in the tourism sector.
The
regional office of the Department of Tourism opposed the
proposed Fiber Optic Backbone Network (FOBN) submarine cable
project of a giant telecommunication firm that will pass
through the natural habitat of the famous “butanding” or
whalesharks of Donsol, Sorsogon.
In a
position paper submitted by DOT5 Director Maria Ravanilla to
the Bicol RDCl she said that while the Globe project is
meant to upgrade communication technology, it would put to
risk the region’s eco-tourism advantage and eventually hurt
the livelihood gains being provided by the presence of
whalesharks in Donsol.
The 2nd
Bagasbas Summer Surf Festival will be held on April 4 and 5,
an event put up by the local government to help promote
tourism in the province of Camarines Norte. Tourism
officials noted at least a 30-percent growth in the number
of visitors annually since surfing clinics were put up two
years ago.
