ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA JOURNALISM AWARDS
2006 National Newspaper of the Year 2011 National Newspaper of the Year 2013 Business Newspaper of the Year 2017 Business Newspaper of the Year 2019 Business Newspaper of the Year 2021 Pro Patria Award PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY 2018 Data Champion
EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS
BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR
(2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021)) DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
2018 BANTOG MEDIA AWARDS
A broader look at today’s business Sunday, March 24, 2024 Vol. 19 No. 161
Q
www.businessmirror.com.ph
P25.00 nationwide | 3 sections 18 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK
SIARGAO’S NAKED ISLAND. Tourist boats gather across the beach of Naked Island, one of the three popular island-hopping destinations in General Luna, Siargao Island. ERWIN M. MASCARIÑAS
Seeing record numbers of Holy Week tourists in surfing paradise Siargao, DOT Caraga braces for another kind of wave— humans eager to refill their souls with nature’s bounty.
PARADISE BRACES FOR ‘INVASION’
B
By Erwin M. Mascariñas
UTUAN CITY—The regional tourism office here has a “happy problem”: an unprecedented number of tourists are expected to descend on the island destination of Siargao for the Holy Week, but it also means preparing well security-wise, and more especially, in terms of ensuring the heavy human load does not max out the place’s capacity for renewing itself.
WORLD-CLASS BEACH. Tourists enjoy the clear white sand beach and crystal clear blue waters of Kawhagan Island, in Del Carmen town, Siargao Island. ERWIN M. MASCARIÑAS
The influx of tourists spending their Holy Week in Siargao is seen to exceed previous years, as the island destination has become more accessible to local tourists—with more boats from the mainland and flights from other parts of the country.
“With easier accessibility to Siargao Island from both air- and sea-bound travelers, we expect nearly 15,000 tourists to arrive on the island for the start of the Holy Week celebration as the island destination has become more popular, especially with our local tourists,”
SUGBA LAGOON. Boats carrying tourists cruise across the turquoise waters of Sugba Lagoon, a cove situated in the island barangay of Caub in the town of Del Carmen, Siargao, Surigao del Norte. Sugba Lagoon is the only tourist destination in Siargao that closes for a month every year to take a break from tourism and let the area heal from the interference of visitors. ERWIN M. MASCARIÑAS said Ivonnie Dumadag, Regional Director, Department of Tourism (DOT) Caraga Region. DOT Caraga said in a report that the projected tourist arrival in Siargao Island for the 2024 Holy Week celebration is at around 14,276 local and 628 foreign tour-
ists, a whopping 785.56-percent increase over the 2023 record of 1,683 arrivals. For the entire region, the report said a total of 38,137 tourists are projected to arrive this Holy Week, with 37,288 local and 850 foreign tourists. Not surprising:
the entire region of Caraga is home to several tourist destinations located in the different provinces of Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Sur, Surigao del Norte and Dinagat Island. For March a total of 42,505 tourists are expected to arrive,
while the tourism office projects more as the summer months start to pick up more vacation travelers. “For April, we are projecting around 63,874 tourists to arrive in Siargao Island, which will wrap up for a total of 106,379 for March Continued on A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES Q US 55.9570 Q JAPAN 0.3691 Q UK 70.8472 Q HK 7.1543 Q CHINA 7.7724 Q SINGAPORE 41.6533 Q AUSTRALIA 36.7582 Q EU 60.7917 Q KOREA 0.0420 Q SAUDI ARABIA 14.9210 Source: BSP (March 22, 2024)