BAGUIO City Mayor Benjamin Magalong yesterday said he is expecting an influx of tourists in the next two months as the city resumes crowd-drawing activities for this year’s Panagbenga Festival or flower festival.
During yesterday’s “Laging Handa” public briefing, Magalong said preparations for this year’s festival, which will run from February 1 to March 5, are going “full blast.”
“All the activities we’ve been doing before, pre-pandemic, all features we’ve done before, we are going to include them now (during this year’s Panagbenga Festival),” Magalong said.
The Panagbenga Festival was suspended in 2021 due to crowd restrictions prompted by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Last year, the festival partially resumed but without crowd-drawing activities, still to prevent the spread of the disease.
The government subsequently eased travel and health protocols last year due to improvement lower cases and better health management of the disease.
With the easing of travel restrictions and the reopening of the country’s borders, tourist arrivals in Baguio City and the country’s other tourist attractions improved in the third and fourth quarter of 2022.
Magalong said the city government has added three or four activities in this year’s celebration.
“We expecting more tourists now compared to the pandemic (years) and most probably compared to the pre-pandemic,” said Magalong, adding: “Our banner year was 2019 in terms of tourist arrivals, but we surpassed this in 2022.”
Baguio City records showed 1.7 million tourist arrivals from January to October 2022, surpassing the 2019 record of 1.2 million visitors.
Magalong said the city is still recording high tourist arrivals this January even when it is already considered low season or off-peak period.
At the same time, Magalong urged the public to be vigilant against scammers victimizing tourists who are booking their accommodations through the internet. He said some scammers were even using his family name.
He said tourists should check visita.baguio.gov.ph to see the legitimate online accommodation facilities and hotels.
“And at the same time, we have many tourist assistant centers. Do not hesitate to approach them,” said Magalong.
He also reminded visitors to observe health protocols when in Baguio City.
