SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—This premier free port again emerged as the most visited tourist destination in Central Luzon, besting for the second year in a row other attractions in the region that compete for visitors and cash that they spend on their tours.
According to Regional Director Ronaldo Tiotuico of the Department of Tourism (DOT), Subic obtained the highest number of local and foreign visitors in the entire Central Luzon region from 2013 to 2014, based on reports submitted by accommodation establishments in all the seven provinces and three economic zones in the region.
Tiotuico made the announcement here before officials and employees of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) during the opening of the National Tourism Week on Monday.
Congratulating the SBMA organization for working hard to maintain the status of the Subic Freeport as the best tourist destination in the last two years, Tiotuico also enjoined the Subic agency and tourism stakeholders in Subic to help push for the realization of the 2015 National Tourism Week theme of “One Billion Tourists, One Billion Opportunities.”
Reacting to Subic’s recognition as the tourism best-seller in Region 3, SBMA Chairman Roberto Garcia said the citation validates efforts by the Subic agency and its tourism stakeholders to “bring Subic to the next level.”
Garcia said that in just the first eight months of 2015, tourist arrivals in the Subic Bay Freeport already registered at 4.3 million, indicating an increase of 30 percent over the recorded arrivals in the same period last year.
“Subic has everything,” said Garcia said in a news statement released on Wednesday. “We have nature-themed parks, some of the best hotels, resorts and malls in this part of the country; the place is accessible by land, sea and air; and, of course, we have year-round activities to make tourists want to visit and stay in Subic.”
The SBMA official also pointed out that the SBMA has allotted some P800 million for capital expenditures this year, with a huge chunk of the fund going to the repair of service roads and drainage systems, and improvement of parks and tourist facilities, as well as the renovation of the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center.
The infrastructure projects, Garcia said, are being implemented to make Subic, which was also named by the DOT as the “Premier Convention Capital of Central Luzon” in 2012, “a better place for a better experience.”
Garcia said that for the National Tourism Week celebration, the SBMA has lined up full events, like the Tourism Quiz Bee Challenge; familiarization tour of theme parks every morning of the Tourism Week; and photo exhibits and lecture-discussions on various tourism topics.
Other activities on schedule are body painting contest and street party, September 25; Third IBP Fun Run, September 26; and, for the culminating event, an outreach program on September 27 at the Subic Gym.
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The toll road on the way to Subic requires improvement in safety. A lot of vehicular accidents already happened in the toll road because of obvious lack of barricades and warning markers at places where the road is curve and there are deep ditches beyond the edge of the road. It is extremely bewildering why the toll road management is not addressing this issue, How many more accidents are you waiting for? Please for the sake of the tourists and other toll road users, do the appropriate corrective action soonest.