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[av_heading heading=’Iloilo City enjoys surge in tourists’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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Thursday, May 11, 2017
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ILOILO City – The number of tourists in this southern city increased in the first quarter of 2017, data from the City Tourism and Development Office (CTDO) showed.
There were 279,616 tourists from January to March 2017 compared to the 260,533 tourists in the same period last year.
This January, there were 97,488 tourist arrivals; 86,946 in February; and 95,182 in March.
There were 90,921 tourist arrivals in January 2016; 81,944 in February 2016; and 87, 668 in March 2016.
“One of the reasons our tourist arrivals is higher during the first quarter of 2017 compared to last year’s was the holding of more conventions and seminars after we hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings. We were able to cater several conventions,” said CTDO head Junel Ann Divinagracia.
Iloilo City hosted four APEC meetings in 2015, namely:
* Strengthening Capital Markets, Infrastructure and Financing from July 23 to 24
* Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) meeting from Sept. 21 to 25
* High-Level Policy Dialogue on Food Security and the Blue Economy from Sept. 28 to Oct. 6; and
* Senior Disaster Management Officials Forum (SDMOF) on Sept. 22 to 23.
Aside from APEC, Iloilo City also hosted the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in March 2017 and SSYEAP International General Assembly (SIGA) last month which were both held at the Iloilo Convention Center (ICon).
The increase of tourist arrivals in the city has big impacts to the economy of Iloilo City, said Divinagracia.
“This has domino effects. When we hosted these big events, we have to prepare for their (conventioneers) food, accommodation, souvenirs, transportation and we were able to expose Iloilo City to them,” she said.
In 2014, the City Tourism Office recorded 676, 287 tourist arrivals; 957, 090 in 2015; and 994, 923 in 2016.
Divinagracia said the Iloilo City government targets to increase by 15 percent the number of tourist arrivals in 2017 from that of 2016.
“We will double our efforts and we will exceed the expectations of our conventioneers in our future hosting of events. We will take care of them and we will ensure their security and safety because through the word of mouth and through spreading positive words about Iloilo City, we are sure that we will reach our 15 percent increase of tourist arrivals this year,” said Divinagracia.
She believes that Iloilo City has the potential of hosting more big events in the future.
“The city’s vision is to become a premiere Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conventions, Exhibitions or Events (MICE) destination and I think we are heading towards that already. Iloilo City has potential in hosting big conventions, and tourists who have visited Iloilo City wanted to go back here and hold their other events here again,” she said. (Iloilo City PIO/PN)
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