Ilocos Norte hotel owners, managers to create group

LAOAG CITY—To complement the aggressive tourism campaign efforts of the provincial government to lure more tourists here, hotel owners and managers are expected to organize themselves as a federation.

By doing so, Aianree Raquel, head of the Provincial Tourism Office (PTO) said, will enable tourists and visitors to enjoy quality service and avoid operation of fly-by-night accommodation facilities, which are not accredited by the Department of Tourism.

Over the past four years, Ilocos Norte’s booming tourism industry created a lot of opportunities to its residents. However, with the increasing number of un-accredited budget tour operators, transients and home stays particularly in the vicinity of Laoag, Raquel said this is causing a problem among licensed hotel and resort owners here.

“We really need to have a solid stand on regulation—to standardize rates with the cooperation of private stakeholders so can control prizes,” he said as he cited the spillover of tourists visiting the province goes to tourism-accredited tourism facilities and there is now an apparent nose diving rates of tour packages caused by fly-by-night operators.

The PTO met with the hotel owners and managers to discuss with them the province’s long term plans on tourism development and how they could possibly work together to sustain tourism and economic growth.

Once organized, the PTO is encouraging restaurant, hotel and other tourism facility owners in the province to open up partnership with the government and other investors to ensure excellent service to customers.

“This is our first step as we are expanding rapidly,” said Mr. Raquel as he reported the provincial government looks forward to a more extensive product development and marketing efforts targeting the increase of domestic tourist arrivals including Chinese and Ilocano balikbayans.

To date, Ilocos Norte has accredited over 2,600 rooms in the entire province with about 64 percent return visitors. Most of the hotels in the province are also expanding while other investors are into the construction of more hotels and some are opening new restaurants. (PNA)

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