In tourism promotion destinations and festivals should go together, says DOT exec
Department of Tourism (DOT) Undersecretary for Tourist Services & Regional Offices Oscar Palabyab encouraged officials in the region to develop a scheme where places could be promoted along with festivals in order to become competitive as far as tourism promotion is concerned.
Palabyab said there is a projected 120 million traffic of tourists in the Asia Pacific region in the coming year and the region should have its share of the tourist arrivals.
He said the country is targeting to attract foreign tourists more particularly from Japan, Australia, China, Korea, Russia and Taiwan.
Palabyab said competition is getting tough but nothing beats Panay or the entire Western Visayas.
He said the region is lucky to have more than 20 festivals and the ten best beaches in the country is located in the region. "We only need ideas to transform into action. The battlecry for the tourism industry here should be 'we've got what you are looking for'," added Palabyab.
He said tourism is an engine of growth. The number of tourist arrivals in 2005 was posted at 26 million. This year the number of tourist arrivals already reached to 3 million which is much higher compared to the previous year's. It is expected that the number of tourist arrivals would still increase before the year ends. The country has so far raked some P28 million because of the big number of tourist arrivals.