SCTEX spawns upbeat tourism business in Central Luzon

MANILA, Philippines – Central Luzon Tourism Regional Director Ronaldo Tiotuico has projected a tourism boom in the region as Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) recently registered a 35 percent increase on monthly arrivals.

“Our monthly arrivals at DMIA increased from 20,000 to 27,000 since Subic Bay now is only 40 minutes away from the airport,” Tiotuico said attributing the surge of regional travelers to the opening of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX).

SCTEX is the country’s longest expressway, built to interconnect three major economic and industrial zones in Central Luzon and spur economic activities in the region. Tourism is among the first industries that gained momentum from the existence of the 94-kilometer stretch.

“Prior to SCTEX, it used to take 2.5 hours to get to Subic if one wants to travel smoothly through the Olongapo-Gapan route or a shorter 1.5 hour-travel through the rugged roads of Floridablanca. Now it only takes 40 minutes going to Subic from the NLEX spur road Mabalacat,” Tiotuico explained.

He stressed this recent development will likely ensure a 10-15 percent increase in the yearly tourist arrival figures.

While exerting efforts to induce tourism in the neighboring provinces of Tarlac and Cabanatuan, the DOT official happily mentioned that Subic Bay benefitted a lot from SCTEX. 

According to him a lot of domestic and foreign tourists flock the Subic-Clark corridor to experience Subic’s theme parks and water activities like surfing, jet skiing, kayaking and parasailing and Clark’s world-class hotels, casino, duty free shops and other travel facilities. “It is highly ideal if both Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) and the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) would harmonize their marketing and promotional efforts. It will result to a lot of savings in terms of government funds, time and effort if these two organizations will complement each other. Subic has its natural attractions while Clark boasts of its facilities and services,” Tiotuico explained.

Anticipating a sudden increase of tourists not only in the Subic-Clark loop but in the entire Central Luzon, the tourism official is now preparing volumes of EZ maps to make travel faster and easier.

CDC announced earlier that last year’s investment haul came from the new tourism projects with P9.2 billion committed investments in the next five years.

Essential to the realization of huge market expectations and long-term economic projections, the SCTEX is envisioned to play a major role in inducing and sustaining economic growth in the region.