KALIBO, Aklan - The Provincial Tourism Operations Office (PTOO) is considering the adaptation of ‘One town, One Festival’ in Aklan as a takeoff from the currently institutionalized ‘One Town, One Product’ program of the Department of Trade and Industry.
The PTOO revealed this plan at the opening program of the Provincial Micro Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Development Action Workshop held May 19-20 at the Governor Corazon Cabagnot Tourism and Training Center in Old Buswang, Kalibo.
Hazel Reyes of the PTOO, who presented Aklan’s Tourism Industry said that tourism is one of the economic drivers and as such is a priority sector in Aklan. She emphasized that Boracay remains the center of the province’ tourism industry, but all of the municipalities in Aklan have attractions to offer tourists seeking other adventures.
Kalibo has the world-famous Ati-atihan Festival every third week of January, while many other towns also have their own version of this festival, which is observed on the same month in their own respective areas.
Presently, other towns have conceptualized their own festivals to highlight the products or industry of their respective municipalities.
The town of Nabas has its Bariw Festival to highlight and give importance to its mat, hat and bag-weaving industry using “bariw”, a plant abundant in the area, whilst the town of Buruanga has its Panagat Festival to show its appreciation to its fishing industry.
The town of Banga recently conducted its ‘Sagibin Festival’ while Kalibo, besides its Ati-atihan Festival, also holds Kalibo Food Festival sa Kalye as a mid-year tourist attraction, held every June, to coincide with the Feast of St. John the Baptist, patron saint of Kalibo.
The adoption of the ‘One Town, One Festival’ in Aklan is seen to further boost Aklan’s tourism industry , which is seeking to attain its target of 1 million tourist arrivals in 2013, with the bulk of more visiting Boracay.
For the first four months of this year, Boracay visitor arrivals, according to the PTOO, reached a total of 332,104. Of this number, 120,041 were foreign tourists; 198,627, domestic, whilst 13,436, were Filipinos from overseas.
The tourist arrivals generated a total of P6,105,200,673.60 in tourism receipts.
In this four-month period, April registered the highest arrival with 121,301visitors, higher than the figure of 101,349 obtained last year for the same period. This represented a 19.68 % growth rate.(PIA)/TE
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