Clark tourist arrivals up

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga , Philippines   – The state-owned Clark Development Corp. (CDC) boasted of “dramatic tourist arrivals” of nearly a million visitors so far this year, noting that the number of tourists was 19.65 percent higher than that of last year over the same period from January to June.

The CDC’s Tourism Promotions Office (TPO) attributed the increase in tourists mostly to “high impact and well attended events such as the MICE Conference and various sports activities.”

In her report to CDC president and chief executive officer Arthur Tugade, TPO manager Noemi Garcia said “Clark tourist visitors both domestic and international increased to 947, 227 from January to June this year, higher by 19.65 percent from the 791, 599 arrivals recorded in the same period of 2013.”

Garcia’s report also indicated that 568, 904 of the total arrivals had been accommodated in various hotels within the Freeport.

“The occupancy rate was impressive as it increased by almost 60 percent from last year’s 283,632 for the same period,’’ she noted.

In her report, Garcia said “the remarkable increase this year is also attributed to massive promotions via liaising, high travel fairs participation, networking and distribution of promotional materials and improved data collection on tourism statistics.”

“A total of 137,760 day visitors, 78,636 events and 59,124 educational tours have been recorded in the first half of the year. Airport arrivals, on the other hand, were pegged at 240,563,” Garcia also said.

The MICE Conference held last June was among the many well attended events at the Freeport, which gathered some 600 delegates and guests from Australia, China, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, United Kingdom, Germany, Poland and Russia, she added.

“Others that equally contributed to the surge in Freeport arrivals sports activities such as the Clark Animo Run 2014, Milo Marathon, Run Tourism Clark and 2014 Regional Little League Asia-Pacific, which had 52 teams from 16 participating countries,” Garcia said.