The Philippine Travel Agencies Association will aggressively push Northern Luzon as a major tourism destination, to boost tourist arrivals in the area to 100,000 this year.
In a statement Thursday, PTAA president John Paul Cabalza said the full potential of the Ilocos provinces and Cagayan as prime tourist destinations remained untapped, even as accessibility and infrastructure in these provinces had improved.
“Northern Philippines has a lot to offer in terms of tourism. They both have adventure and eco-tourism. They have some of the most pristine white beaches in the Philippines and the food there is among the best in the country,” Cabalza explained.
“Those destinations can easily be reached with daily flights or buses from the National Capital Region. Tourists going to Ilocos or Cagayan also need only to spend P5,000 a day to enjoy their stay there,” he added.
The PTAA, which has recently taken its members on a familiarization tour of Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte, also plans to take its members to Cagayan in cooperation with the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), which became a member of the PTAA last month.
“What we did for Ilocos, we will also do for the province of Cagayan. We will take our members there to see the business potential of the province and have them establish networks with local tourism players. We want to create awareness on the province,” Cabalza said.
Most of the tourists who visit CEZA come from China because of the developed gaming facility in the economic zone.
CEZA also boasts of Palaui Island, which was named by broadcast network CNN as one of the 10 best beaches in the world.
The PTAA, with more than 500 member companies nationwide, is the leading partner of the government in the promotion of the country’s tourism industry.