NEDA eyes improvement in WV tourism

• Source:https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1024298
• Wednesday, July 10, 2019

By Carlson B. Alelis

ILOILO CITY (PIA) -- The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA)-6 plans to sit with local planners in the region to discuss how they can take advantage of tourism in localities.

According to NEDA-6 regional director Ro-Ann Bacal, the things that cannot be achieved by Boracay island anymore can be done by other areas in the region.

One of the things that she mentioned is the possibility of having a holding area for certain destinations in the region where they can pay their fees and be oriented about the location and the dos and don’ts in the area.

This can be done to “avoid being disorganized and to monitor the transport of boats going to-and-from the different islets,” she said.

“This is what we intend to do to regain the losses from Boracay,” she added.

Bacal attributed the temporary closure of Boracay for rehabilitation last year, as one of the factors that slowed down the region’s economy, which was 6.1 percent in 2018 compared to 8.6 percent in 2017.

Meanwhile, Maria Teresa Guadalupe, chief economic development specialist of NEDA-6, said tourism arrivals in the region went down from 5.85 million in 2017 to 4.96 million in 2018.

However, she mentioned that Western Visayas is still the fifth largest economy in the country, outside of the National Capital Region in 2018.

“The tourism sector will certainly pick up, especially also that many more provinces are taking a second look at their attractions and see how they can maximize also the benefits from developing these attractions and getting more out of these attractions,” Bacal said.