Professional surfers from France, Indonesia, Japan, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, and the Philippines were warmly welcomed by the Provincial Government of La Union and the Department of Tourism (DOT) for this year’s World Surf League (WSL) La Union International Pro.
Surfing has been the province’s top tourist attraction as La Union’s coastline faces the West Philippine Sea with waves that can reach up to 10 feet.
WSL solidified La Union’s standing as one of Asia’s top surfing hubs as thousands of surfers and tourists flock to the northern province to ride the waves during surf season.
San Juan has a total area of 5,186 hectares and also holds a four-kilometer shoreline facing the China Sea.
It is famous for its surfing area along the beaches of Urbiztondo — considered as the surfing mecca in Northern Philippines — with waves suitable for beginner and intermediate surfers. Because of this, the town has been a venue for local and international surfing competitions.
Joseph Francisco Ortega, regional director of DOT-Ilocos Region, said that surfing is a niche market; and in the last two years, local surf instructors have been trained from level zero to level one from the Academy of Surfing Instructors.
Because of this training, instructors are now legal to teach surfing and they can also get a huge opportunity especially if they go overseas as it serves as a qualifying international standard.
Following the success of WLS, the DOT eyes to open more surfing destinations/locations in the country.
“We have started it in La Union and I have seen how it delivered local tourism progress,” Ortega said.
The WSL recorded about 100 registrants — a mix of domestic and international visitors — who joined the competition at their own expense.
As one of the surfing destinations in the north, the one thing that is inimitable in San Juan, La Union is the community and its townspeople who are friendly.
“Just go to La Union and they can speak with anybody there, and locals will make them feel at home,” he added.
La Union, a place in the Philippines that can offer something global, has roughly 2,000 to 3,000 beds, but the DOT-Ilocos Region is hoping to get more investments to come in to address the province’s problem of overtourism.
This year, Ortega plans to touch base with the mayors in the second district.
“What we did was we started with expanding the surfing break to Agoo and Caba,” he also added. “I will be personally visiting the areas to assess if they are surf-friendly. This will help decongest San Juan.”
“We hope to train more instructors from outside of San Juan and to be able to offer surfing lessons to different spots in the province,” he noted.
“In the coming years, we want to bring more international surfers, so they can surf the other undiscovered surfing spots in the country, and give chances and inspire those who want to surf and compete.”
To increase volume of travelers to certain locations such as La Union, which is being positioned as the country’s surfing capital, Paulo Benito Tugbang, director of the Office of Product and Market Development and concurrent director for Medical, Health, and Wellness Tourism, said that it is important for the province to equalize opportunities by increasing its investments in infrastructure development for tourism purposes.
“The more accessible the location is, the more people will want to come,” Tugbang said.
DOT Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco has been adamant in pushing for equalization of product development.
“For this year, we have earmarked sufficient funds for the development of surf as one of our nature-based tourism products, as well as other important tourism products,” he also said.
Governor Raphaelle Veronica Ortega-David, for her part, said that La Union boasts of waves that are very friendly to beginner surfers.
