GOV: LA UNION TOURISM ON THE RISE

By: Omme Atiyah B.Gonting, GPC-PIO

“I think we’re on the right track,” Gov. Francisco Emmanuel “Pacoy” R. Ortega III said after Department of Tourism Region 1 Dir. Martin S. Valera presented the results of the Region 1 2018 Visitor Survey to him and Provincial Tourism Officer-Designate Mr. Adamor L. Dagang on July 25, 2019 at the Diego Silang Hall, Provincial Capitol Building, City of San Fernando, La Union.

He backed this up by saying that the Local Government Units also aligned their Programs, Projects and Activities to the visio0n of the province to be the Heart of Agri-Tourism in Northern Luzon by 2025. The 2018 Tourist Attraction Visitor Survey comprised of administrative data gathered from analyses and interviews in the various identified tourism sites regionwide. Topics discussed were Local Tourism Data Compilation; Basic Local Tourism Indicators; Data Gaps on profiling visitors; and Visitor Survey. It aimed to identify general visitor profile, travel characteristics, attraction satisfaction, and expenditures in a specific tourist attraction. Implementation and coverage of the study was also tackled in the meeting.

The output of tourist characteristics showed that most of the tourists visiting the province are aged 20 – 34 years old, mainly the millennial generation which affirms that the province possesses a unique laid back lifestyle and hipster culture that is famed to the younger market.

Average length of stay was also presented and La Union gained the highest rate of 1.87% compared to the other provinces in Region 1. Percentage of repeat visitors also stated that La Union gained 54% and the highest among the other provinces in the region. This explains that tourists are motivated to come back.

In general, survey revealed that the province ranked first in terms of tourism expenditure with an estimated total of 1,808,972,834 from 35% occupancy rate, repeat visitors and average length of stay in the region due to the undeniable drawing power of surfing and emerging Agri-Tourism potentials in La Union.