BAGUIO CITY – The municipality of La Trinidad in Benguet province is coming up with more infrastructure projects to boost tourist arrivals amid a projected slump in tourist figures in 2025.
“We have different infrastructure projects which will improve our roads and transport in the municipality to entice our tourists to visit La Trinidad,” Mayor Roderick Awingan said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
Awingan said the town is allotting funds to improve access to the Bayabas Falls, an addition to the flower gardens, vegetable trading posts, and the popular Benguet State University Strawberry Farms.
The town will also earmark funds for a drainage system at the falls, he added.
Awingan also said they were assured by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) that the construction of the main road, which causes heavy traffic congestion in the town, will be completed ahead of the original schedule set before July, the onset of the rainy season.
He also hoped that the last phase of the Bolo Creek’s rehabilitation would push through, which would help drain water from the creek to the Balili River to prevent floods.
The local government has already requested the national government to allot funds for the project.
Awingan, however, admitted that the flood control issue has diminished the chance of fund allocation for the project.
He said that while there are no major projects to address flooding in the town, dredging and water system clearing activities helped minimize floods, particularly during the onslaught of Super Typhoon Uwan (Fung-wong).
Awingan said they are also working with the BSU to address issues besetting its strawberry farms.
“We cannot make plans and tourism programs because it is privately owned by BSU, but we are working with the Strawberry Farm complex promotions board,” Awingan said.
The mayor earlier said the town plans to construct a building where micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) can showcase and sell products.
“If we have tourists, the products of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) will be sold, if sold, then they will have funds to pay their taxes and their workers, benefiting the municipality as a whole,” the mayor said.
Valred Olsim, municipal tourism operations officer, said the town is projecting a decrease of 200,000 in tourist arrivals for 2025, or 20 percent of a little over one million tourist arrivals in 2024.
“We will still determine by actual decrease by the first quarter of 2026, but seeing the numbers during the second and third quarters of the year, we can see a decrease. We attribute this to the frequency of the weather disturbances, as well as the anticipation of the traffic due to road construction,” he said in a separate interview, adding that most tourists visited the strawberry farms. **Liza Agoot
