MAKING AN IMPACT Tourism Circuit Planning in Northern Palawan (Philippines) Typhoon devastation requires creative solutions in Northern Palawan Northern Palawan is one of the top eco-tourism destinations in the Philippines and was even named one of the best island destinations in the world by Conde West Traveler. The cluster islands, also known as The Calamianes, is located at the northernmost tip of the province of Palawan and known for their endemic wildlife, limestone forests, coral reefs, and shipwrecks. But despite the popularity of the area and its captivating natural assets, in the early 2000s the Calamianes was experiencing a relatively slow increase in tourist arrivals. Then, in 2013 Super Typhoon Yolanda hit the Philippines. Calamianes was one of the areas hit by the disaster, which greatly affected its tourism industry.
More than 5000 residents lost their homes and more than P2 billion in damages was caused to properties, lifeline and communication facilities, agriculture, fisheries, and transportation in the area.
The immediate challenge for the tourism sector after the typhoon was to regain tourism growth and investment momentum. But the tourism stakeholders in Palawan realized they needed to strengthen and diversify their portfolio of tourism products in order to encourage tourists to extend their visits and increase spending in the area. They also emphasized the need to continue following the principles of sustainable development.
Tourism Circuit Plan: identifying challenges and opportunities Tourism circuit planning is a local economic development strategy. It involves mapping and assessing the tourism sites in a particular area. This allows local governments, national government agencies, planners, policy makers, and program managers to map out programs and efforts to align and coordinate existing as well as planned initiatives. From April 2014 to March 2016, LGSP-LED worked with local partners in Palawan (The Provincial Government, local government, the Palawan Tourism Council and the Calamianes Association of Tourism Establishments
MAKING AN IMPACT TOURISM CIRCUIT PLANNING IN NORTHERN PALAWAN (PHILIPPINES)
(CATE), to develop a Tourism Circuit Plan for Northern Palawan that would enhance tourism competiveness and drive economic development in the area. The Tourism Circuit Plan identified several barriers to tourism development in Northern Palawan, including:
Limited capacity of Coron Airport Unreliable power supply Need to diversify tourist products and sites for more inclusive and sustainable development Limited capacity for tour handling and guiding No brand specifically for Northern Palawan Concentration of hotel rooms in Coron
The plan also defined three integrated sub-circuits:
The Reefs and Wrecks sub-circuit: primarily involving the lakes and attractions on Coron Island as well as the lagoons, reefs, shipwrecks, and marine protected areas; The Busuanga Island sub-circuit: focused on the land-based cultural and natural attractions/activities on Busuanga Island as well as Calauit Island; and The Culion-Linapacan nautical sub-circuit: the emerging sub-circuit that links the historic and natural attractions of Culion and Linapacan to the service center of Coron.
A framework for growth The Tourism Circuit Plan gave the Provincial and Municipal LGUs, with the private sector (i.e. CATE and the Palawan Tourism Council) a guide for product development, destination marketing, workforce development, and investment priorities for the sustainable tourism development of Calamianes moving forward. As a result of the Plan, CATE members started to develop activities and attraction sites to complement the standard island-and-lake-hopping itineraries currently offered in Coron. These included more land-based packages for birdwatching, farm tourism, river cruise, and inland ecotourism activities, as well as new activities such as community immersion or volunteer activities. LGSP-LED also provided support to the LGUs along the circuit for improving their ‘business-friendliness and competitiveness’ in order to accelerate investments, generate employment and develop LED-enabling policies.
53 LGU leaders and staff with LED functions were trained to champion the adoption of business-friendly policies and programs in the Provincial Government as well as the Northern Palawan local government. CATE was also an active partner in developing and finalizing the new Calamianes destination brand, as well as in formulating the local workforce development plans of the Northern Palawan LGUs.
MAKING AN IMPACT TOURISM CIRCUIT PLANNING IN NORTHERN PALAWAN (PHILIPPINES)
Increased investments, jobs, and visitor arrivals Since the start of the project in 2014, the Provincial Government has facilitated the infusion of an estimated PHP 480 million for public investments in tourism infrastructure for Northern Palawan, primarily for construction or upgrade of tourism roads. These priority projects are in line with the infrastructure priorities identified in the Tourism Circuit Plan. There have been noticeable investments in new accommodation facilities of varying types around Coron and Busuanga since 2014 and visitor arrivals to the area increased to 100,926 in 2014, or a 10.23% increase from the previous year. The Tourism Circuit Plan proved to be a very powerful tool in Norther Palawan. It clearly showed how issues of infrastructure, environmental sustainability, tourism product development, destination marketing, and employment required regional economic support. And by visually showing where the key LED interventions were most needed across the Calamianes as a whole, the Tourism Circuit Plan heightened the importance of cooperation between government and with the private sector.
SUMMARY Program name: Palawan Tourism Circuit Plan Location: Norther Palawan Population: 771,667
Date: 2014-2016
Area: 1,464,973 hectares
Key program components:
Tourism Circuit Plan developed and an alternative land-based tour circuit was launched Destination brand developed to unify tourism in 4 LGUs LGU Leader Training Local Economic and Investment Promotion Officers training in LED and investment promotion Training conducted in workforce development for LEIPOs, Public Employment Service Officers and private sector partners LGU Business Plans developed Creation of a Project Implementation Team
Impact highlights:
Legislative-Executive teams from Coron, Busuanga, and Culion, drafted 3 new or updated LIICs for their respective local governments with technical inputs from LGSP-LED. Visitor arrivals to the area increased to 100,926 in 2014, or a 10.23% increase from the previous year; this translates into an average annual growth rate for visitor arrivals to Northern Palawan of 14.47% since 2011. New hotel investments from 2014 to 2016 resulted in the creation of at least 442 new jobs for residents of Coron. Provincial Government invested is an estimated PHP 480 million for tourism infrastructure in Northern Palawan, primarily for construction or upgrade of roads along the tourism circuit. Including the ongoing projects, the total value of new hotel investments in Coron since 2014 is estimated to be worth at least PhP 568.5 Million.
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Program of:
Canadian Executing Agency: