Negros Occidental aims to draw 500,000 tourists in 2022, or a 60 percent increase from 2021, as COVID-19 restrictions ease.
A Negros Occidental Tourism Division report presented at the 2nd Quarter Tourism Officers Meeting at the Capitol in Bacolod City on Wednesday, April 6, showed that the province had 311,577 tourists – 310,0 894 domestic and 683 foreign, in 2021 who brought in P1,761, 049,460 in revenues.
The tourists in 2021 were 53.7 percent higher than in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Provincial Tourism Officer Cheryl Decena reported.
The tourist arrivals in Negros Occidental in 2020 had dropped by 75 percent from 2019, she said.
COVID-19 is by far recent history’s unparalleled crisis, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said in his speech at the tourism meeting.
At the home front thousands of Negrenses from the sectors of construction, trade, particularly that of tourism, were gravely affected by the economic impact of the quarantine measures, he said.
“Now, more than two years into the pandemic, here we are, opening our province to travelers and tourism, albeit cautiously. While the decrease of our COVID cases shows a positive outlook on the current COVID situation, we must nonetheless exercise cautious optimism,” he said.
Lacson, in an interview, said Bacolod City tourism representatives were invited to Wednesday’s meeting.
It cannot be denied Bacolod will get the bulk of the tourist arrivals, but after conventions or meetings the province would like to get hold of these visitors, he said.
“That is why it is important that there is proper coordination between province and city as far as tourism is concerned, “he said.*