TOURISM

• Business boomed in Albay as thousands of adventure-seeking tourists were drawn to the restive Mayon Volcano with many even risking their lives to get close to the spectacular flowing lava,  according to provincial authorities. Governor Joey Salceda said 2,400 tourists a day had been pouring into the area since the volcano started oozing lava on December 14, compared with about 200 a day before. However, Salceda said many tourists were also slipping past security patrols to enter the 8-kilometer danger zone around Mayon to get a close-up experience of the slow-moving lava column.

Businesses here claimed that their revenues have increased by as much as 30 percent since Mayon started becoming restive and tourists were drawn to the volcanic show. Misibis Bay Raintree, a luxury island resort in the Albay Gulf and the Pacific Ocean, has noted a significant increase in revenues from its A-list market. The resort on Cagraray Island offers to high-end clients a volcano adventure tour package, which includes a one-hour chopper ride or an ocean cruise to view Mayon from a safe distance.

 

Salceda, who clarified that disaster tourism was not one of his government’s development strategies, estimated that 75,000 tourists came to Albay in December alone. This one-month figure has already surpassed the number of tourists that arrived in the province in 2008, he said.

• Camarines Sur earned distinction as the first ever and only local government unit (LGU) to establish and operate a tourism park in the country. This developed with the recent issuance of Presidential Proclamation No. 1932 by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo designating several parcels of public land totaling 73-hectares situated at Cadlan, Pili  and Maycatmon, Milaor right within the Provincial Capitol Complex as a special economic zone primarily for tourism development.

The approval by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) of the application of CamSur to build and operate a special tourism estate is expected to further boost the local economy by encouraging tourism-related investments and generating more employment that will have very positive impact on local growth and development.

• Legazpi’s colorful month-long Ibalong Festival returned in October 2009, more exciting and festive than ever before. The Ibalong Festival celebrates Bicol’s ancient history as told in the Ibalong folk-epic fragment that recounts the adventures of Bikol’s early heroes, Baltog, Handiong and Bantong.

First celebrated in 1992, the Ibalong Festival continues to be one of the most anticipated events in the city and elsewhere in the region that draw a lot of tourists to Legazpi. The Ibalong Festival also coincides with the feast of St. Raphael Archangel and the fiesta of the Legazpi Port District.

• Kasanggayahan Festival, a month-long annual celebration of Sorsogon province’s socio-cultural heritage and great historical contributions to the greatness of the Filipino nation opened on October 17 with the theme "Pangangalaga sa Kalikasan, Buhay ng Susunod na Salinlahi Tungo sa Tunay na Kasanggayahan" (Care for Environment, Life of the Next Generation Way to the True Kasanggayahan).

Records of the Department of Tourism (DOT) regional office showed  that tourist arrival in Sorsogon last year improved by some 20 percent during the celebration period of the Kasanggayahan Festival. Around 500 foreign tourists came for the festival last year, Butch Ravanilla, chairman of the committee on tourism of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan,  said.