EVEN with the absence of an airport and slow seaport traffic, Pagadian City still managed to pull off a mark in tourist arrivals for 2009 with favorable figures and a possible upward trend for next year.
A simplified tourist inflow report obtained by this paper showed a total of 119,924 tourists visited Pagadian from January to August alone. Of the said total, 119,210 composed of domestic visitors while some 714 were a mix of Chinese, American, Korean and Indonesian foreigners.
In the simplified report, some 14,951 local tourists were noted in February and these shoot up to 16,202 in March. The months of February, March, April and June listed heavy arrivals for domestic visitors.
Foreign tourists, meanwhile, were heavy during summer time, April to May, with 142 and 126 arrivals, respectively.
These factional data was praised by Mayor Samuel Co when he delivered his speech at the opening of the Paskuhan 2009 opening last Dec. 8 saying it was some good news for the regional center and will in turn pick up hopes of boosting the local tourism industry.
The current 119,924 figure even surpassed a Regional Development Council (RDC) report on tourist arrivals for 2007-2008 which was placed at 119,910 for Pagadian beating even the figures culled for Dipolog and Dapitan cities.
Unfortunately, statistics covering September to November was excluded in this report because of the failure of the City Tourism Office to provide this paper with the information.
The RDC report explained that tourist arrivals in 2008 decreased because of the global financial crisis and the travel advisories of countries prohibiting their citizens from visiting some parts of Mindanao because of unstable peace and order and kidnappings.
Co said he is unfettered with the dismal statistics in 2008 because there was a rational cause but he hopes that with the city airport already finished and open by second week of January and the existence of good roads connecting Zamboanga Peninsula to other regions, travels to Pagadian City will spruce up anew in 2010.
The mayor likewise said he is overwhelmed with the development he will ask fellow city officials to be enthusiastic and legislate more local laws concerning investor come-ons and captivate more tourists through the development of the city’s natural and man-made attractions.
With the same idea, City Police C/Insp. Michael Palermno told this paper in a huddle a few weeks ago that law enforcers are also making adjustments by fully concentrating on the safety of all tourists and visitors as he encouraged people to travel to Pagadian amid negative connotations of the region brought about by peace conflict and kidnappings.
Governor Aurora Cerilles once said that Pagadian City has already experienced a fast-growing economy because of the transfer of regional offices from Zamboanga and the presence of new business enterprises which helped the city grow into prosperity.
REPORT BY MICHAEL MEDINA & JONG CADION