By Emmanuel Solis/PNA
LEGAZPI CITY — The city government here has put up an electronic information machine for use of foreign and local visitors who may want to know about the different tourism attractions and activities in the city, Mayor Noel E. Rosal said in an interview on Thursday.
Rosal and Benjamin Santiago, director of the Department of Tourism (DOT) Bicol regional office, led the launching of the tourism information electronic kiosk or e-Kiosk last December 17 at the lobby of the city hall building.
Rosal said Legazpi City is the first locality in the entire Bicol to put up an electronic information machine that would be helpful to tourists vacationing here.
He said the city government will also put an e-Kiosk at the airport and at the city’s grand transport terminal for use by those who need to know about hotels, transportation rates, boarding houses, as well as ordinances and resolutions and other tourism-related activities.
The mayor said his administration will also put additional e-Kiosk machines in different malls and other establishments operating in this city.
Based on record from the city tourism office, the tourist arrivals recorded in 2016 was at 1,199,291, which increased to 1,275,710 in 2017.
Rosal said the steady increase in tourists’ arrivals in this city the past few years was the result of the promotion and holding of different tourism activities that include the yearly Ibalong Festival and sporting events such as the Mayon Triathlon and Le Tour de Filipinas.
Aside from these, he said conventions, seminars and other similar gatherings were conducted in the city, the main factor for the declaration by the Department of Tourism (DOT) of Legazpi City as among the top five Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) venues in the country.
In 2017, the city tourism office recorded 140 MICE conducted here. As of November 20 this year, Legazpi had already recorded 213 MICE.
Santiago, on the other hand, said the e-Kiosk is the cheapest and fastest way of promoting the tourism industry of Legazpi.
He commended Rosal for the innovations done by the city administration that would surely help tourists and visitors have a more enjoyable vacation in Legazpi.
