By Danny O. Calleja
LEGAZPI CITY, Sept. 19 (PNA) – After surpassing the half-million tourist arrivals mark last year, the local government here expects to achieve more improvements in its tourism performance this year by hitting the 700,000 count.
“Realizing this higher number will give us a better chance of notching a slot in the top 10 best tourist destinations and top five convention cities in the country this year,” City Mayor Noel Rosal on Friday said.
The city, he said, received a total of 579,470 domestic and foreign tourists last year — which was higher by 141,370 or a whopping increase of 32.27 percent from the previous year’s list of arrivals.
These figures landed the city in the 14th place of the country’s best destination ranking, according to Rosal.
“This year, we have had more foreign arrivals from China, Russia, Korea, Japan, Middle East countries, United States and other travel markets around the world owing to the intensive tourism promotion we have been doing—among them the opening of the city airport as gateway for direct international flights early this year,” he added.
First worked out by the Department of Tourism (DOT) regional office for the Albay-Masbate-Sorsogon Tourism Alliance (AlMaSorTA) was the opening of the Legazpi Airport as international gateway that saw the arrival of hundreds of Chinese tourists flown in to the city via chartered flights from Xiamen City.
AlMaSorTA is a program conceptualized by the Bicol Regional Development Council (RDC) headed by Albay Gov. Joey Salceda as chairman as the tourism road map designed to achieve development not only in the Bicol mainland provinces of Albay and Sorsogon but also in the island of Masbate.
“The opening of the city as gateway for direct international flights takes advantage of the foreign market trend showing that international tourists do not tend to a local destination as they follow a cycle leading them from one place to another,” Rosal said.
Under this program, the city government, in partnership with the Misibis Bay Island Resort in Cagraray Island of Bacacay, Albay, arranged several other direct flights from Xiamen that brought in nearly 1,000 Chinese tourists in time for the city’s month-long celebration of Ibalong Festival last August.
“This direct flight project was arranged as a continuing tourism activity this year but was cut short by an advisory issued last Sept. 12 by the Chinese government warning against travel to the Philippines after a Chinese teenager who worked in a family-run store was kidnapped,” Rosal said.
The advisory was also issued amid plots that criminal groups are planning to attack the Chinese Embassy and companies, as well as airports and shopping malls.
Rosal said this travel warning will certainly hurt the city’s tourism industry but not much “because we have many other international markets and I believe that this advisory is only temporary and will be lifted soon.”
Nonetheless, he said, without the Chinese coming in during the remaining months of this year, the city would still realize its 700,000 tourist arrivals expectation for 2014, given that it plays year-round as host to many large international and national summits and conventions.
These events bring in thousands of delegates and participants who marvel at the local tourism wonders, the city chief executive added.
The Ibalong Festival alone was able to generate some 10,000 tourists and visitors while the about-20 conventions and similar large gatherings held in the city from January to August have already contributed nearly 100,000 arrivals.
Among these giant gatherings here were the triple conferences of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-World Tourism Organization (ASEAN-WTO) held for six days at the plush Oriental Hotel.
At least 10 more big occasions are scheduled before the end of this year from where the city expects to draw an additional figure of around 30,000 visitors, according to Rosal.
“Our daily arrivals either via the average five daily commercial flights from Manila and Cebu or land trips coming from Metro Manila and several other origins in Luzon and the Visayas islands are the biggest contributors to our tourist arrivals, averaging around 1,500 daily,” he noted.
These people, Rosal said, come not only for the majestic Mt. Mayon but because Legazpi is already a world-class city that caters to an influx of investments and massive urban development that continuously attract travelers.
And since tourism growth enlivens trade and commerce, the mayor said the local business climate has also been made pleasant as investment opportunities have been going broader and more fortified.
“Tourism is indeed taking a crucial role in the city in its pursuit of inclusive and horizontal growth that will benefit not only big investors such as hotel operators but also the people in the countryside, where most of its tourist destinations are located, by providing more opportunities for employment and business ventures,” the city mayor stressed. (PNA)