The Department of Tourism (DOT) in Mimaropa Region announced recently that the region's tourist arrival rises for about 23 percent in 2018 compared to the previous year.
During the last leg of Dagyaw 2019: Open Government and Participatory Governance Regional Town Hall meeting held in this town, Tourism Regional Director for Mimaropa Danilo B. Intong said that 2,545,421 tourist arrivals were recorded in 2018 in Mimaropa.
According to the data presented by Intong, the province of Palawan — where the famous Puerto Princesa Underground River and the home of majestic lagoons of El Nido and Coron — reached 1,917,461 tourist arrivals in 2019, making it the most visited province in the region followed by Oriental and Occidental Mindoro.
Intong also revealed that 787,914 or around 31 percent of the 2.55 million tourist who visited the region last year were foreigners. South Korea top the list with 100,102 foreign tourists, followed by China, United States, Taiwan and France.
“We are looking towards more interplay of European markets thats why we would like to sell more—and looking into increasing our tourist arrivals of foreign visitors and also for our domestic which is now at 4.2 million,” Intong said on during his presentation.
The regional director also said that the Department of Tourism is partnering with other government agencies to implement and improve their programs and projects, just like the Tourism Road Infrastructure Program (TRIP) implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways in Carabao Island, Romblon where they started concreting the entire circumeferencial road.
Intong encouraged participants of Dagyaw 2019, particularly the local government units to invest in tourism in their respective provinces to further boost the tourism industry of Mimaropa region.
“This is one thing, Tourism is everyone's business. I would like to appeal to the government officials and to the people present here today: Wala pong negosyo na hindi ka nagpu-put-up ng capital, at least pawis mo ilagay mo. Hindi ka mananalo sa lotto pag hindi ka tumaya (There is no business that you does not require a capital. Well at least you have to invest your sweat. You can't win a lotto draw if you will not bet). Now I'm challenging everybody – let's put our stake in tourism if you want to really gear up economically,” Intong said.
