BACOLOD CITY — Following the setbacks in the past months, Negros Occidental province has monitored an increase in tourist arrivals starting last week of November.
Cristine Mansinares, provincial supervising tourism operations officer, said as of Wednesday, there had been a significant increase in the number of passengers flying into the province recently.
This is based on the Negros Occidental Tourism Division’s monitoring of flights from different destinations although it has yet to be determined whether these are domestic or foreign tourists.
“We have also initially assessed some of our tourism establishments like hotels and restaurants, and they noted a positive number of clients,” Mansinares said.
The tourism sector here had felt the adverse effects of rebel atrocities and terror threats earlier this year, but given the latest development, Mansinares said the province is optimistic of reaching its target — 10 percent increase in tourist arrivals for 2017.
Initial figures submitted by the local government units indicate that Negros Occidental could hit the target, she added.
Records of the Department of Tourism-6 showed that in 2016, Negros Occidental, including Bacolod City, was in second place in terms of number of tourist arrivals in the region, with almost PHP32 billion in tourism receipts.
Almost 1.65 million domestic and foreign tourists visited the province last year, posting a 14 percent increase from the estimated 1.42 million arrivals in 2015.
In October, the Negros Occidental Tourism Division urged tourism establishments in the province to be vigilant in terms of security to counter possible adverse effects of rebel activities to the tourism sector.
Mansinares said that insurgency concerns, if not addressed, might discourage visitors to come to the province.
“Apart from our police force, the community, including tourism establishments must be engaged to help in the prevention and detection of further threats that could really impact negatively on the industry,” she added. (PNA)
