By Leilanie G. Adriano
LAOAG CITY, April 6 (PNA) — Tourist arrivals in Ilocos Norte continue to pick up reaching a record high of more than 356,000 this Holy Week season.
Records obtained from the Provincial Tourism Office show an estimate of 356,443 compared to last year’s 271,106 or an increase of 85,337 foreign and local tourists arrivals during the weeklong visit.
Jun Arvin Gudoy, head of the Communication and Media Office of the provincial Capitol, said a notable increase of visitors was observed in Paoay, Virgen Milagrosa chapel in Badoc and the province’s eastern town destinations.
Amidst typhoon signal no. 1 that threatened the province on April 4, majority of visitors still push with their plan to visit the province’s various tourism destinations from the Badoc gateway all the way to the northernmost part of Pagudpud beach.
Lesser visitors however were recorded at the Ferdinand E. Marcos presidential museum and Malacanang of the North.
With the provincial government’s aggressive tourism promotion efforts as a premiere summer destination of the north, the Ilocos Norte government hopes that the number of tourists’ arrivals will further increase by more than 50 percent or to beat the province’s target of inviting at least one million tourists every year.(PNA)