By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo / Special to the BusinessMirror
BAGUIO City, which recently celebrated its 2019 iBagiw Festival, continues to be a popular tourism destination.
Data from the Department of Tourism-Cordillera Administrative Region (DOT-CAR) showed visitor arrivals in Baguio City growing by 15.8 percent to 1.76 million in 2018. Of this, some 1.72million were domestic tourists, and 35,234 were foreign tourists. The city accounted for some 80.55 percent of CAR’s total arrivals in 2018. However, foreign visitor arrivals slipped by 27 percent from 48,261 in 2017.
This year’s iBagiw Festival showcased massive murals and an assortment of colorful art work as Baguio celebrated the second anniversary of its recognition as a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) Creative Cities Network. iBagiw, which literally means “someone from Baguio” or“something made in Baguio” featured over 500 works by local artists at the ruins of the Diplomat Hotel, a former Dominican retreat house built in 1913, at the newly inaugurated Heritage Hill and Nature Park.
“Baguio City is dramatically living up to its title as the Philippines’s first Unesco Creative City as collective creativity literally soared to greater heights, turning the Dominican Heritage Hill Nature Park into a meaningful venue of this year’s celebration of the second anniversary of the prestigious recognition,” said DOT-CAR Officer in Charge Jovita Ganongan, in a news statement.
Among the featured works of art were those created by National Artists Benedicto Cabrera and Kidlat Tahimik.
iBagiw was jointly organized by the Baguio City local government, DOT-CAR, the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), and the Baguio Arts and Creative Council, with the goal of establishing the Philippines’s traditional summer capital as a major creative arts hub in the Southeast Asian region.
“iBagiw Festival is borne of the artful creativeness and prideful sense of community here in Baguio City in which the sprawling heritage site is put to a most ideal use and the nobler purpose of supporting the arts, as well as boosting local tourism,” said Ganongan.
In selecting Baguio City among its Creative Cities in 2017, Unesco stated, “Baguio City’s artistic culture ranges from crafts and folk art expressions to woodcarving, silver craft, weaving and tattooing. Today, 56 local institutions are directly devoted to the sector, totaling a gross receipt of $1.11 million. Although crafts and folk art represent an essential cornerstone of the city’s local trade and creative tourism economy, Baguio City works toward developing the sector’s sustainability through intergenerational transfer of knowledge and skills.”
Baguio City is the first in the country to be included in the coveted Unesco proclamation for its multicultural diversity, with Cebu City making the list this year.
The Unesco recognition in the Design Category affirms the numerous creative talent of Cebuanos in furniture design, fashion accessories, architecture and interior design, the lates of which is evident in the new terminal of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, which has been designed like a resort.
Image credits: Contributed Photo