WHAT MAKES PROVINCE OF ALBAY UNIQUE AS DESTINATIONS?

ALBAY is every traveler’s memento. For years Albay has been synonymous to Mayon
Volcano, the famous landmark shortlisted in UNESCO’s World Heritage Site. Now, the
province is perceptibly shining as a hidden tourism gem offering innumerable activities
for leisure, fun, relaxation, and travel.

In Albay, tourists will find many remarkable places that were previously known only to
locals and are still untouched by commercialism. Many of these destinations have never
been featured in travel literature and awaits discovery. Partly due to its pristineness, the
province was declared as a Biosphere Reserve in UNESCO’s MAB Programme as it is the
proud home of approximately 462 flora and fauna species, 137 of which are endemic.

People are also one of its tourism assets. ALBAYANOS are resilient, gracious, happy and
accommodating who go out of their way to make visitors’ stay in the province
comfortable, relaxed, and worry-free.

Albay is home to at least 19 festivals that are celebrated all year round by its different
cities and municipalities. In each month of the year, tourists will be sure to find revelers
dancing in the streets in celebration of a religious or agricultural festival. These festivals
last for several days and feature activities showcasing the local culture and practice.

Albay offers not just scenic and cultural destinations. It is globally recognized by United
Nations as the model for adapting to the impacts of climate change. After suffering 46%
damage in 2006 due to Typhoon Durian, the province quickly recovered by using tourism
as one of its principal tools for reconstruction with foreign tourists’ influx. It also built 320
kilometers of roads to provide access to new and unique destinations such as the
Cagsawa Ruins, Quitinday Hills, falls, black sand beaches, Japanese caves, colonial
houses, historical landmarks to name a few.

Proof to how guests were enticed by its beauty, Albay hosted national and international
events like UNWTO-ASEAN 2014, XTERRA Off-road Triathlon 2015, and the upcoming
PATA Tourism Frontier, where the province able to share its experiences in transcending
and mitigating the inevitable effects of climate change, having the world’s first and only
Climate Change Academy and Disaster Risk Management Training Institute. It has zero
crime rate against tourists and has modern health facilities. With all the beautiful
destinations and the warmest welcome, it can offer to guests and tourists, the province
make tourism as one of its priority programs.

WHAT TO DO IN ALBAY?

A. COLORS OF ALBAY TOUR CIRCUIT

Albay offers vast number of tourist attractions that are organized into tourism circuits to
cater to the specific preferences and interests of our visitors. The “Colors of Albay” are
the following:

• “Green Lane” refers to the special tourism circuit that focuses on eco-tourism and
highlights the province’s natural resources and nature formations, such as natural
habitats, waterfalls, caves, and eco-parks;

• “Blue Lane” refers to the special tourism circuit devoted to eco-nautical tourism
promoting water sports, visits to marine reservation, scuba diving, interaction with marine
life and other water activities;

• “Brown Lane” refers to the special tourism circuit that showcases indigenous products,
processes, and services which shall include but not limited to trade and souvenir centers,
showcasing and selling local culinary treats and native products including abaca
handcrafted products, pottery, woven fabrics, cutlery, precious and semiprecious stones,
and art products; and

• “Gold Lane” refers to the special tourism circuit that highlights Albay’s tangible and
intangible heritage including but not limited to colonial houses, churches, monuments,
ruins and relics, tunnels, philosophy, customs, traditions, practices and artistic works and
expressions.

B. SAVOR ALBAY’S CUISINES

Food is also a great part of the Albay experience and the local cuisine is one of the most
interesting fares in the country. Dishes served from the 65 restaurants in Albay are borne
from tradition to culture that is mixed up in a tantalizing melting pot of various flavors,
along with a couple of dashes of new fusion cuisine. These establishments are all
supported and promoted by the province as part of its culinary tourism program.

Albay’s renowned local dishes are the Bicol Express, pinangat (a dish which combines
taro leaves, chili, meat and coconut milk), and pili nut. Offering local specialty cuisines
are encouraged and often result in interesting gourmet fusions making Albay’s
restaurants some of the most distinct in the country. Another uniquely Albayano dessert
that catches gourmet’s attention is the sili ice cream— made from famous scorching chili
& comes in varying degrees of hotness.

C. TOURISTS READY AND FRIENDLY

Albay is accessible by land, air, and sea. It has its own airport – The Legazpi Airport,
which received chartered Xiamen-Legazpi flights that started in 2014. Construction is
underway for the Bicol International Airport in Daraga, which is scheduled for completion
in 2016. Buses operate daily between Manila and Albay, and the buses from the South
carried by ferries. It has a well-built road system with the leas capex subsidy needed from
the National Government. Albay is also the only province with two international seaports
in Tabaco City and Legazpi City. There are more than 154 establishments in Albay with a
total room capacity of 2,903. These include luxurious and posh hotels and resorts that
also serves as a world-class convention center, hosting a variety of national and
international meetings, incentives, conferences, and events.

Bicol is major tourism player

August 31, 2017
By Rhaydz B. Barcia

BACACAY, Albay --- The Bicol region is the country’s major tourism player that brings
pride and promising growth that contribute remarkable economic development, Tourism
Assistant Secretary Frederick “Ricky” Alegre said during the unveiling of the Pacific View
Wing of Misibis Bay Luxury Resort in Cagraray Island, Bacacay town over the weekend
here.

He said that the region’s tourism industry continues to grow with Mayon volcano,
coastal breaches, coves, islands, marine biodiversity, protected areas, natural wonders,
historic site, rich cultural heritage and tradition, cuisine and festivals as major tourism
players that invite tourists to come.

He said that for the past seven months this year, Legazpi City achieved 10.13 percent
growth in 2017 compared to its record of the same period last year.

In 2014, Bicol garnered 3.7 million visitors with almost 3 million of which were
domestics, 657,000 overseas Filipinos and 726,000 foreign travelers registering a
growth rate of 40.5 percent compared to its performance in 2013.

Camarines Sur topped all the provinces with 1.9 million which accounted for 49.97
percent of the total arrivals in the region. Albay is consistently next in rank but the
growth for foreign arrivals perked to 99.2 percent rate in 2013 and 12.3 percent in
2014, he said.

With the influx of domestic and foreign tourists, the region needs more hotels to
accommodate the growing number of visitors.

“The unveiling of the Pacific view of the resort is a purveyor of hope and vision for a
brighter tourism in the region as we await the infrastructure support that President
Duterte has promised and aggressively embarked under a build, build build mantra,”
Alegre said.
From 36 rooms, Misibis Bay Luxury Resort in Cagraray Island has now 150 rooms that is
meant to help address shortfall in room accommodation.

In 2015, Bicol had 8,018 rooms from 517 accredited accommodation establishments
representing 20.64 percent number of rooms’ growth, according to Alegre. The on-
going tourism road network projects under the convergence program between the
Department of Public Works and Highway and DOT, rehab of Maila-Bicol railway and
construction of Bicol International Airport are expected to boost tourist arrivals in Bicol
once completed, the tourism official said.

“We see in the horizon the Daraga International Airport and the rehabilitation of the
Manila-Bicol railway system with expansion toward Matnot, Sorsogon in the south, and
Tabaco City north of Legazpi City that we believe will come into reality soon,” he said.

Alegre said that Tourism Secretary Wanda Tulfo-Teo has launched the “Bring Home a
Friend” campaign in an effort to attract more tourists to come to Philippines.

The program aims to encourage the 10 million overseas Filipinos around the world to
bring in to the country at least one of their friends.

“This can translate to 20 million visitors if everything else goes well as planned. After
all, every progress begins with a lofty dream,” Alegre said.

DOT: Bicol among PH’s top 5 tourist

destinations
February 2, 2017 | Rhaydz B. Barcia

LEGAZPI CITY --- The Bicol Region is now one of the top five tourist destinations in the country compared
to its “sluggish” performance during the early ‘90s.

“Bicol is now a promising and rosy tourist destination compared to the other areas in the country as the
number of visiting tourists, particularly foreign tourists, has tremendously increased annually, said Director
Maria O. Ravanilla of the Department of Tourism (DOT) regional office here.

She said the region has been attracting more foreign and domestic tourists as shown by the latest records
posted by the agency.

DOT-Bicol records show that domestic and foreign tourist arrivals in all the six Bicol provinces and six cities
in the region, that were recorded from January to June 2016, increased by 26.6 percent compared to the
same period in 2015.

The total number of combined domestic and foreign tourists was 2,202,003 million from January to June
2015, while for the same period, the total arrivals in the region was 2,787,719 million.
In the first half of 2016, Camarines Sur, which is famous for its Caramoan group of islands, recorded the
most number of combined domestic and foreign tourist arrivals with 613,062 in 2016. Albay which is known
for the majestic Mayon Volcano was second with 352,483 arrivals.

Camarines Norte which has become known for its powdery white sand beaches such as Bagasbas Beach
and the Calaguas Group of Islands, was third with 249,988 arrivals during the first half of 2016.

The records showed that for the same period, Catanduanes had 105,557 tourist arrivals, Sorsogon--86,735
and Masbate--40,651.

Among the five Bicol cities that include Legazpi City, Naga City, Iriga City, Masbate City and Sorsogon City,
Legazpi City, a component city which is the capital of Albay province had the most number of combined
foreign and domestic tourist arrivals during the first half of 2016.

The combined total tourist arrivals from January to June in 2016 in Legazpi City was 569,527, while Naga
City was a close second with 560,586 total arrivals. Masbate City was third with total tourist arrivals of
106,882.
But as to domestic tourist arrivals in the five cities, Naga City ranked first with 468,045 tourist arrivals
during the first half of 2016 compared to Legazpi City with total visitors of 367,022.

According to the tourism department, the increasing tourist arrivals in Bicol has contributed multi-billion
pesos in gross receipts to the Bicol economy and generated jobs for Bicolanos in various tourism-related
industries in the region, specifically in hotels, restaurants, resorts, transportation, handicrafts and
entertainment sector.

Ravanilla attributed the rosy tourism industry in Bicol to the joint initiatives of the private and government
sectors who have been working together to build more infrastructure projects to be able to create new
tourism hubs.

She cited that among the five Bicol cities, Legazpi City posted the highest growth rate of 27.7 percent of
combined foreign and domestic tourist arrivals in the first half of 2016, compared to the first half of 2015.
Legazpi City recorded 569,527 total arrivals compared to total tourist arrivals of 445,867 for the same
period in 2015.

“Naga City followed with a 16.47 percent growth rate for the two periods, with 560,586 arrivals for the first
half of 2016, compared to 481,304 arrivals for the same period in 2015.

Ravanilla said the Legazpi City government under Mayor Noel Rosal has “fast tracked” the construction of
a coastal road known as the 4.08-kilometer Legazpi City Boulevard.

“The boulevard, which passes through barangays (villages) Victory, Dapdap, Puro and Lamba, contributed
to boosting such growth rate,” she said.

Barangay Lamba in Legazpi City connects to the Bicol International Airport in Barangay Alobo, Daraga. The
groundbreaking of the new airport was attended by President Rodrigo Duterte early in December 2015.
Ravanilla said this has meant more jobs, investments and more tourists for the Bicol region as a whole.

“This coastal road now serves as an alternate route to decongest traffic jam from the city proper and
likewise provides commuters safe access and easy transport of their marine, livestock and agricultural
products to the city’s newly built commercial centers,” she said.
Ravanilla said foreign investors are now eyeing Legazpi as the “most promising business and ecotourism
hub in the country.”

She added that in the six provinces in the Bicol region, local government officials, from congressmen, to
governors and mayors, have been working together to make tourism a vibrant industry in the region.

DOT-Bicol has acknowledged the private sector, specifically Bicolano business tycoon Elizaldy S. Co, chief
executive officer of the Sunwest Group of Companies, who has been putting in more investments in Bicol,
particularly in Albay province, so that new corridors could be developed along the coastal and upland areas
of Legazpi.