AROUND 237,000 tourists, foreign and locals alike, visited Montevista in Compostela Valley last year for the municipality's Diwanag Festival.

This time around, the municipal government is optimistic to breach this number with the launching of its “Churches in the World”-themed Diwanag Festival 2018.

Montevista Municipal Mayor Eutropio Jayectin attributed the social media in the successful and high number of visitors during the Diwanag Festival last year.

“Nagpasalamat gyud ko sa social media kay tungod nila napakaylap sa kadaghanan ang atong Diwanag Festival (I am thankful to the social media for spreading about Diwanag Festival), he said during the event's soft opening press conference.

Thus, this time around, the municipal government invited some bloggers and vloggers, aside from the media, during the soft opening of the event.

Elsa Cantrall, the municipal's tourism coordinator, noted that there was a very high and significant increase in last year's Diwanag compared to 2016's staging of the same event.

“In 2016, a little more than 20,000 visitors only, compared to last year's 237,000 tourists who visited our place for the Diwanag,” she said citing that they arrived at this number through calculation of the municipal hall grounds' land area, where they estimated that every square meter can occupy four people.

Jayectin also assured that although Montevista is a third class municipality, but they can still accommodate influx of tourists who will be visiting for the festival, with the help of the municipal's neighboring towns and municipalities as well.

“But we are still exerting more effort to accommodate them (visitors), and we will not rest in our effort to accommodate more,” he said.