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By Rhick Lars Vladimer Albay
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ILOILO City – Western Visayas is quickly becoming one of the top tourism hubs in the country – with over two million tourist arrivals in the first half of 2017 alone – and a major airline company is taking notice.
“We have different segments in the market that show enormous potential. Western Visayas is especially of interest [to us] as a competitive market,” said Philippine Airlines vice president for marketing Ria Domingo during a press briefing for the launch of their new next-generation Bombardier Q400 – the first dual-class turboprop airplane of its kind in Cebu City.
“Western Visayas is a region with a huge concentration of tourist destinations that lets visitors and foreign tourists experience our culture, our food and the warmth of our people. [So] it’s a definite that we’re seeking to expand in the region,” she added.
The new Bombardier Q400 aircraft is set to fly from Mactan International Airport bound for Caticlan – one of the gateways to Region 6 and just across the strait from world-renowned island destination of Boracay in Malay, Aklan – effectively opening new channels for growth in the number of tourist arrivals in the region.
PAL Express president Bonifacio Sam adds that the Cebu – Caticlan route is already served daily, and they hope to add another Q400 aircraft by December to increase their everyday capacity.
TOURIST ARRIVALS ON THE RISE
In the span of the first five months of 2017, the Department of Tourism (DOT) Region VI has recorded 2,020,034 tourist arrivals in the region – well on the way of reaching or even surpassing last year’s 5,193,634 total visitor arrivals, a partial report from the DOT shows.
The numbers have prompted DOT 6 regional director Atty. Helen Catalbas to proudly express that they are confident “Western Visayas will hit its 5.5-million tourist arrivals target for 2017.”
Aklan remains the most visited province – largely due to the island destination Boracay – with 1,160,839 visitors. It is followed by emerging metros Iloilo City (410,061) and Bacolod City (269,232), with developing tourist spots Antique (43,277) and Guimaras (16,715) behind them.
Catalbas especially commended Antique for stepping up its game in promoting the tourism of the province with its more than forty-thousand tourist arrivals (from January to March 2017), barely 32 percent away from its 63,613 January to December tourist arrivals in 2016.
“DOT Region VI takes into consideration these numbers because this is where we align our tourism products and services. Western Visayas already knows its strength; it’s time to enhance other areas to accommodate more tourists, creating Western Visayas one destination with diverse culture”, Catalbas concluded.
Western Visayas remains most popular among East Asia nationals, with 188,149 Korean tourist arrivals and 177,208 Chinese visitors.
PAL flies its fleet of turboprops to – Basco, Busuanga, Naga, Calbayog, Catarman, Surigao, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, Caticlan, Tacloban, Legazpi, Iloilo, Bacolod, and soon to Zamboanga and Jolo.
A total of 12 next-generation bi-class Bombardier Q400 – with a seating capacity of 86 – will be utilized to expand PAL’s domestic network using operational hubs in Manila, Cebu and Clark.PN
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