BAGUIO CITY– The city enjoyed a 13 percent increase in tourist arrivals from January to September this year, according to the third quarter tourism statistics report of the City Tourism and Special Events Office.
According to the report released by City Administrator Carlos Canilao and acting city tourism and special events operations officer Jose Maria Rivera, a total of 1,013,704 tourists have visited the city from January to September this year.
The figure is higher by 115,100 or a 12.81 percent increase of tourist arrivals as compared to the data for the same period in 2016.
The report was based on the data supplied by the various accommodation establishments in the city including hotels, resorts, apartelles, pension houses, tourism inns and other licensed and unaccredited establishments all over the city. It does not include data from alternative establishments like home stay facilities or transient homes, serviced apartments, dormitories and private homes.
Based on the data, the biggest increase was posted in the months of January and February which chalked up 33.25 percent and 23.59 percent increase, respectively.
April and May remained to be the peak months for tourists with 143,966 and 133,343 arrivals respectively followed closely by January with 132,293 and February with 129,233.
Majority of the tourists are Philippine residents (977,499) and the rest foreigners and Overseas Filipino Workers.
Among the foreigners, Americans were the top patrons followed by Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, Singaporeans, Canadians and Australians with a number coming from Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates.
Based on the report the average occupancy rate of accommodation establishments was 40.36 percent for the said period with the visitors having an average length of stay of 1.52 days.
For said period, the city hosted a total of 1,977 conferences, 1,725 of which are regional in scope with a total of 746,129 participants.
According to the CTSEO, some of the factors that affected this year’s tourist arrivals were the moratorium on field trips as issued by the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education following the tragic bus accident involving college students in Tanay, Rizal, the alleged National People’s Army attack in a nearby municipality, car accidents and landslides along major routes going to the city. ** Aileen P. Refuerzo
