Zoilo ‘Bingo’ Dejaresco III l July 12, 2023 l Business Mirror
BOHOL island is on a major “run” in tourism, its flagship industry, pushed by the “revenge travel” phenomenon and big investor enthusiasm.
Already, one of the most preferred destinations in the Philippines, Bohol got a big shot in the arm this year when it was declared the “first Global Geopark” in the country, joining a short list of only less than 200 sites in 48 countries by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. It is expected to generate intense new tourist interest.
Every month a new resort opens on the island-both big and small. The biggest to join this year is the Marriot Hotel (with the Cebu -based Apple One Properties Inc.), which will be the first 5-star hotel in Bohol located on Panglao island.
This followed the announcement of an ambitious 57-hectare 10-year P25-billion “resort town” development—a “mini-city” in the heart of the island—developed by the Alturas Group Panglao Shores in Bolod, Panglao. The group already operates the South Palms Resort currently.
In 2019, just before the pandemic, Bohol posted a record-breaking 1.6 million tourist entries (both locals and foreigners) but was stymied by the entry of the pandemic. However, from January to May this year, tourists recorded a 129-percent rise from a similar period in 2022 or 326,306 from 155,014. The Bohol Tourism Office expects that for the whole of 2023, tourists would total close to a million.
In terms of foreigners, Korea tops the list of entrants in Bohol, followed by Taiwan, the USA, China and France. Korea operates three daily flights landing at the Panglao Bohol International Airport through Jeju Air and Air Busan bringing in up to 600 Koreans daily. To such an extent that in some favored restaurants, often there are more Koreans than locals frequenting the place daily.
A damper to this gung-ho atmosphere in tourism, however, is the slump in agriculture where 41 of the 47 towns, so far (involving 71 hectares) suffered huge losses due to the extremely warm weather. The onset of El Niño will definitely threaten the water levels in its four water dams, namely, Malinao, Bayongan, Caraga and Zamora.
Already the Provincial Agriculturist Office projects, so far, P110 million in losses in actual crop damage and lost opportunities as farmers refuse to plant for fear of losses due to lack of rain and water. The provincial government led by Gov. Erico Aristotle C. Aumentado, through the recommendation of the Provincial Risk Reduction Management Council, is set to declare a “state of calamity,” which will automatically fund the release of the “Calamity Funds.”
Some 70 percent of the funds will be for preparedness and disaster mitigation while 30 percent go to actual disaster response. Among the first responses will be the proposed P10-million cloud-seeding program to induce rain to fall during the El Niño onslaught.
The telltale signs were seen last April with the nature-induced “ grass fire” across three municipalities that lasted for 16 hours and that gobbled up in flames 200 hectares of grassland.
The Bohol tourist boom will, therefore, somehow be clouded by the incoming El Niño that brings drought, then food scarcity and, therefore, escalating prices for tourists and locals alike.
El Niño is a weather phenomenon that causes weak winds from the east and prevents the formation of clouds over the Philippine archipelago and scatters the rain instead over the vast Pacific Ocean.
Boholanos, however, are expecting El Niño would be a short-term curse while the tourism boom will be final and lasting.
*** Zoilo P. Dejaresco III, a former banker, is a financial consultant and media practitioner. He is a Life and Media member of Finx. His views here, however, are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of Finex and the Business Mirror. E-mail: dejarescobingo@yahoo.com.