BALER, Aurora—Tourist arrivals in this province, located in a horseshoe-shaped coastal valley overlooking the Pacific Ocean, are suffering “a massive slowdown,” provincial tourism officer Michael Palispis said.
Palispis admitted visitor arrivals slackened in 2016 to 823,468, just 5.7 percent higher than the 778,917 arrivals recorded in 2015.
“Yes, we have suffered a slowdown. There is still slight increase in arrivals but the pace of increase is not much higher,” Palispis said, noting the PTO posted a modest 44,551 increase in visitors in 2016.
Based on PTO records from 2005 to 2016, tourist arrivals have fluctuated wildly but have grown on average by 59.75 percent a year.
The slowdown started to be felt in 2015, when tourist arrivals reached 778,917, an increase of only 13.71 percent over the previous year’s 684,977. That’s in contrast to the 151.66-percent rise between 2013 to 2014, when arrivals jumped from 273,187 to 684,977.
Palispis blamed the slowdown on the calamities that struck the province last year, including typhoons “Karen” and “Lawin” in October.
“We were battered by calamities one by one. After that, we suffered from long stretches of rain,” he said, noting that in January alone, it rained for three weeks nonstop.
Compared to the months in the previous year, tourism in Aurora saw 14,596 less tourists in January 2016, 16,475 in February, 22,871 in April, and 1,128 in November.
March 2016 saw 16,005 more tourists than the same month in 2015, followed by 1,118 more in May, 9,499 in June, 15,718 in July, 9,526 in August, 6,943 in September, 17,139 in October, and 23,673 in December.
Board Member Philip Butch Bautista, chairman of the committee on tourism of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, blamed the tourist slowdown on the meager provincial budget for tourism.
“It is too small, unlike during the time of ‘BAC’ when our tourism budget was big,” Bautista said, referring to former three-term governor and now Rep. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo.
Bautista also lamented the lack of vision of Gov. Gerardo Noveras in pushing tourism, the industry that made the province widely known.
“Tourism should be a priority program of Governor Noveras. For example, up until now, we don’t have a tourism code. I have asked the governor to create a technical working group to fine-tune the crafting of a tourism code but until now, he has not created one,” Bautista said.
Palispis said that the PTO is making do with what is allocated to them by the Noveras administration. He said the PTO projects tourist arrivals to hit the 900,000 mark by year-end.
A total of 587,676 vsitors went to tourist destinations, while 235,792 sought accommodations in hotels, inns and resorts, compared with 559,222 and 219,695 in 2015, respectively.
He said local government units have stopped tourism activities during calamities as a precautionary measure. “For example, the municipal government of Baler has stopped surfing activities when weather is bad, unlike before when they are allowed even during typhoons.”
The tourism officer added that access to the Ditumabo Falls in San Luis is being closed to the public during bad weather because it generates floods.
Palispis also said the PTO is making do with what is allocated to them by the Noveras administration. He said their office projects tourist arrivals to hit 900,000 by yearend.
