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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Monday, March 6, 2017
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ILOILO City – The Department of Tourism (DOT) agreed to transfer its regional office to another location. It is giving way to the redevelopment of the 4.9-hectare property of the provincial government on Bonifacio Drive.
The transfer firmed up during a meeting in Manila of DOT Undersecretary Alma Rita Jimenez and DOT regional director Helen Catalbas on March 2.
The provincial government presented to DOT the master plan for capitol grounds’ redevelopment, which is expected to start by the third quarter of 2017.
Several buildings will be demolished, including DOT-6’s office and the old building that currently houses the government-owned DyLL Radyo ng Bayan.
DOT-6 will transfer to the Philippine Red Cross building beside the Chief Justice Ramon Q. Avanceña Hall of Justice just a few meters away from the DOT building.
The Red Cross, on the other hand, will transfer to a lot to be provided by the provincial government in La Paz district.
The Red Cross building will be renovated to suit DOT’s needs.
The proposed relocation, however, has yet to be presented t DOT secretary Wanda Teo.
DOT recently reported that Western Visayas earned some P111.6 billion from local and foreign tourists in 2016.
This figure represented a 9.25-percent gain from 2015, data from DOT-6 showed.
Region 6 also welcomed 5,070,650 tourists last year, surpassing the 4,632,331 arrivals in 2015 by 8.4 percent, based on the DOT’s partial record.
Foreign tourists reached 1,027,460; domestic tourists, 3,998,064; and overseas Filipinos, 45,126, the Tourism department’s regional office said.
Countries from East Asia contributed the biggest arrivals in 2016 with 719,745.
Across the region, Koreans remain the biggest source market, with 357,036 total inbound visitors. Chinese followed with 280,885 arrivals, while Taiwan ranked third with 56,850./PN
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