THE Provincial Tourism Office (PTO) of Negros Occidental remained optimistic of reaching the province’s target increase of 10 percent in tourist arrivals this year.
Cristine Mansinares, provincial supervising tourism operations officer, on Thursday, June 8, said terrorism and other criminal activities in the country during the first few months of the year are disturbing events that could impact negatively to the tourism industry.
Mansinares, however, said the Provincial Government remained hopeful to significantly increase the number of tourists in the province this year as necessary measures are being implemented.
“Domestic tourism propelled 96 percent of our visitor arrivals last year and Negros remains safe as a destination with increased security measures,” she added.
The Department of Tourism (DOT) in Western Visayas earlier reported that Negros Occidental, including its capital Bacolod City, ranked second in terms of number of tourist arrivals in the region, with almost P32 billion in tourism receipts in 2016.
Almost 1.65 million domestic and foreign tourists visited the province last year. The figure is 14 percent higher than the almost 1.42 million arrivals in 2015.
For Bacolod alone, the DOT reported tourist arrivals of 799,224 last year, which is 14.33 percent higher than 2015’s 699,061.
With the target of 10 percent increase, the province should cater to about 1.82 million tourists this year.
Mansinares said that as tourists, especially domestic, continued to arrive during the summer season, the target arrivals increase is still achievable.
Connectivity is a competitive advantage of the province. New air route from Clark, Pampanga to Bacolod will be opened this month, she said.
“This will complement our ports with roll-on, roll-off facilities than can also contribute much to reach our target,” Mansinares said.
Other measures in boosting the industry include making the province, particularly Bacolod, more attractive to the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions market, she added.
On June 12, the DOT will officially launch “Experience the Philippines” as its new tagline for the country’s tourism campaign.
The previous slogan was “It’s more fun in the Philippines,” which according to tourism officials had helped in increasing the country’s tourist arrivals last year.
The DOT, in a report, said the country had foreign tourist arrivals of about 1.8 million in the first quarter of the year. The figure is 11.4 percent higher than last year’s.
For Negros Occidental, Mansinares said the “Experience the Philippines’ slogan complements the province’s new tourism branding in promoting its sweet surprises as a destination.
