BACOLOD CITY— Accommodation establishments in this city are fully booked for the ongoing 38th MassKara Festival with highlights set on October 20 to 22.
City Tourism Officer Ma. Elma Gerasmo on Monday said that most bookings were made since July.
Gerasmo said Bacolod has a total of 71 accommodation facilities, including hotels, pension houses, tourist inns, resorts, and apartelles, with a maximum capacity of 5,950 rooms.
The most anticipated events of the 22-day festivities are the street and arena dance competitions to be participated in by schools and barangays on October 21 and 22, respectively.
President Rodrigo Duterte was invited as guest of honor during the highlights on October 22 at the Bacolod public plaza.
Gerasmo said the fixed date of the MassKara Festival prompted visitors, especially Filipinos from abroad, to make early bookings for the festival.
Last May 26, the City Council passed an ordinance setting the MassKara Festival highlights permanently on the fourth Sunday of October.
“The permanent schedule of the festival will allow people across the world, including Bacolodnons living abroad, to set their MassKara vacation in advance,” Councilor Em Ang, chairperson of committee on tourism, said after the ordinance was approved.
According to the ordinance, the city will celebrate the highlights of MassKara Festival every fourth Sunday of October to strengthen, promote, and expand the festival’s impact on tourism.
Gerasmo earlier said Bacolod is optimistic on reaching the 12 percent target increase in tourist arrivals this year with the strengthened marketing and promotion efforts for the MassKara Festival, after a slight improvement noted in arrivals in the early part of 2017. (Nanette Guadalquiver/PNA)
