THE province of Tawi-Tawi has recorded 55,085 tourist arrivals, foreign and domestic visitors, in 2015, which are higher by 14.3 percent than that in 2014 and posted closed to P1 billion in gross tourism receipts.
Engineer Marites Maguindra, secretary of the Department of Tourism in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DOT-Armm), said over 48,000 of the 55,085 tourists have visited Tawi-Tawi for holiday or business purposes.
Maguindra said that among the major tourist sites in the province of Tawi-Tawi are the Panampangan Island, the white beaches in the municipalities of Sapa-Sapa and Sitangkai, Boloboc Cave in Sanga-Sanga Island, and Turtle Islands.
Tawi-Tawi is the southernmost province in the country and covers small islands in the Sulu Sea and the Cagayan de Tawi-Tawi Island and Turtle Islands to the northwest.
Maguindra said they will develop ecotourism packages in Tawi-Tawi aimed to encourage more tourists to visit the province.
Maguindra said among the activities to be promoted to lure more tourists to come to Tawi-Tawi are scuba diving, island hopping, and visits to local communities.
She said the Armm government under the stewardship of Governor Mujiv Hataman is building more roads and other needed infrastructures to connect Tawi-Tawi’s islands and urban areas.
She said Armm’s Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH-Armm) has earmarked P55 million for the development of Bud Bongao, the famous peak in Tawi-Tawi.
She said the tourism projects in Bud Bongao include the following: a multi-purpose hall, view deck, station point, concrete pathway, parking area, and billboard.
She added that tourist arrivals and gross receipts are expected to further increase with the development of Bud Bongao. (Bong Garcia)