Angara urges Pangasinan to sustain momentum in tourism

Team PNoy senatorial candidate Edgardo “Sonny” Angara today lauded local officials of Pangasinan for the booming tourism industry in the province.

Angara said that Pangasinan Is now the top tourist destination in Ilocos Region, having increased tourist arrivals almost twelvefold from only 55,600 in 2007 to 661,767 in 2012.

“These numbers speak volumes of the hard work and concerted effort the people of Pangasinan have put into promoting their province to their kababayans,” said the Harvard-trained lawmaker, noting that Tourism Action Service Action Officers have been designated in all cities and municipalities to help in the development and enhancement of the tourism industry in the province.

Angara and the rest of the administration coalition’s senatorial candidates are in Pangasinan to campaign at the Mangatarem Public Auditorium and Bugallon Public Plaza. They will attend a political rally at the Stadia Dagupan with President Aquino as guest.

At noon, the group will move to Alaminos to join the President and local leaders in the “symbolic deboning of bangus in Island Tropics, Lucap to show support to Pangasinan’s pride product. In the afternoon, they will attend another rally at Sison’s Auditorium where the President is also expected to speak.

Pangasinan is one of three biggest voting provinces in the country expected to deliver big votes to the Team Unity senatorial candidates. The others are Cebu and Negros Occidental.

In May 2012, the province hosted the Palarong Pambansa which brought together some 10,000 athletes, coaches, sports officials from public and private schools nationwide.

Angara, a representative of the lone district of Aurora, added that better infrastructure such as roads, hotels and even an airport will not only bring more tourists but also more investments into the province.

“By making it easier for people to come and stay in Pangasinan, employment opportunities—not just visitors to the Hundred Islands National Park—could increase a hundredfold,” said the veteran legislator who is campaigning on a platform of quality education and jobs generation.

He continued : “Pangasinan boasts of one of the longest coastlines and therefore the most accessible of beaches. Much like many other parts of the country, the issue is not whether the province has attractive destinations, but about accessibility—getting people to the actual tourist sites.”

Angara co-authored the Tourism Act of 2009 (RA 9593), which declares a national policy on tourism as an engine of investment, employment, growth and national development.

The National Economic Development Authority recently identified tourism as one of the sectors the current administration will support and prioritize towards its agenda of inclusive development.

“Tourism is labor-intensive and can therefore provide many unemployed Filipinos a way out of poverty,” Angara said.

“As an industry, tourism is also not very intrusive given that it hinges on what is already out there—the beauty our countryside naturally has,” he added.