Traveling to the Northern Luzon Regions: Linking Tourism and IT

I am writing this column while preparing for a NEDA Regional Directors' meeting in Vigan, Ilocos Sur.

We left Manila by car at eight thirty yesterday (Tuesday) morning and after four stop-overs (in Pampanga, Tarlac, La Union and Ilocos Sur), reached Vigan at around nine in the evening (and our party of around 40 was treated to a sumptuous dinner at the Provincial Capitol).

I didn't realize how far this city is, until yesterday's trip.

My impressions?

First, the roads - they are in excellent shape but requires sideward expansion to accommodate more traffic. The economy of Northern and Central Luzon is progressing considerably as shown by the traffic that held us up in many towns and cities such as in Tarlac City in Tarlac, Agoo in La Union, Urdaneta in Pangasinan and Candon in Ilocos Sur.

The houses in-between urban centers were made of concrete, thus, enhancing the impression of economic growth. These provinces definitely do not belong to the top twenty poor provinces of the country.

Second, the impact of tourism is dramatic. Vigan is a city with an atmosphere that returns us to the Spanish era with those old – Spanish style residences and a lot of antique products on sale.

All towns along the way had a tourist attraction to offer.

There will be more of it tomorrow as I proceed to San Fernando , La Union and up to Baguio to talk about the Eastern Information Sharing Network (EVISNet) to groups assembled by their Regional Information Technology and Ecommerce Councils (RITECC). These councils have noticed our achievement in Eastern Visayas and are interested in learning from us.

From this invitation, it is clear IT is also high in their minds here.

The theme of the RD's meeting is “Heritage Tourism in Regional Development”. That's an impression that struck me on the way to Vigan. Tourism activities and projects with so much history abound on these places. And looking at the reading materials given to us, indeed we need to look at tourism as a major source of economic growth. ( Spain earns more from tourism than Saudi Arabia from its oil)

A glaring (maybe even blinding) statistic in the materials is that Region VIII has the lowest share of tourist arrivals among the fifteen regions of the country at 1.6%.

Then two strategies – Tourism and IT, will be a major concern Eastern Visayas should focus on in the next plan period – 2004 to 2010. They figure prominently in our present plans but implementation is still at a slow pace. We need to work harder and more consistently.