THE Intramuros Administration (IA) exceeded its visitors target for 2017 by some 57 percent, attracting some 1.68 million to its museum and parks.
Lawyer Guiller B. Asido, IA administrator, attributed the rise in visitors to “more tours conducted and coordinated,” while “events organized and social-media accounts reached increased by 63 percent in 2017 compared to 2016.” The visitors target for 2017, per the General Appropriations Act for 2017, was 954,000.
The number of visitors in 2017, however, was 9.7 percent lower than the 1.86 million who visited in 2016. The visitors target in that year was 962,041.
Asido told the BusinessMirror, however, “it’s difficult to compare the 2016 to 2017 since the DBM [Department of Budget and Management] used different targets and MFOs [major final outputs] for 2016. So for 2017, we just look at our performance based on targets.”
About 99.5 percent of visitors surveyed rated the quality of facilities as “satisfactory or better,” exceeding the 90-percent target for 2017, and the 96 percent recorded in 2016.
Earlier, Asido said Chinese tourists were the largest source of visitors of Intramuros. (See “Intramuros is top draw for Chinese tourists—I.A.” in the BusinessMirror, November 13, 2017.)
The agency failed to reach its P81-million target for revenue generated from leasing and rental of facilities, hitting only P75 million last year. The IA administrator explained that the P81-million target was “premised on the increase in rental fees and lease rates, which did not happen, since the new rates were only approved in December 2017.” On the upside, the actual collections exceeded the 2016 revenue by P600,000.
Under the GAA for 2018, the IA is targeting to increase its number of visitors to some 1.92 million and revenue collected to some P62 million.
Asido, likewise, said there was a 16.5-percent rise in the number of permits/clearances issued in 2017 to 1,670. He explained that this was largely due to the “increase in monitoring and stricter enforcement of requirements on permits and clearances.” The number of permit/clearances issued was also 67 percent more than the agency’s target of 1,000 for 2017. Occupancy rate on the commercial properties fell slightly to 68 percent, compared to the 72 percent recorded in 2016. The 2017 rate also did not reach the 72-percent goal for that year. “One [lessor] did not renew,” Asido said.
He added that the average rate of return on the estimated commercial value of the properties was pegged at 2.3 percent, exceeding the 2017 target of 1 percent. This was slightly lower than the rate of return recorded in 2016, which was placed at 2.4 percent.
Yet, 99.72 percent of users of event facilities in the walled city rated the facilities as “satisfactory or better,” higher than the 90-percent target for 2017, and the 99-percent actual rating in 2016.
The IA has also sped up its issuance of permits to use facilities, with 99.92 percent of applications “acted upon in 24 hours.” This was faster than the 2017 target of 90 percent, and the actual accomplishment of 98 percent in 2016.
In terms of its regulatory services, 977 permit and clearance holders were monitored and/or inspected with reports issued, up from the 800 targeted last year. This was almost 11 percent lower than the 1,096 monitored and or inspected with reports issued.
The IA said only 1.84 percent of submitted reports resulted in a notice of violations or penalties, compared to 2017 target of “not more than 25 percent” of submitted reports.” This was higher, though, than the 0.75 percent posted in 2016. The agency also did not record permit clearance holder with two or more violations, same as in 2016.