200 thousand spent Holy Week in Baguio
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By LORIDALE J. SALARIOSA
www.nordis.net
BAGUIO CITY — An estimated of 200,000 visitors spent their Holy week here, according to Gabby Keith, officer of the city tourism office. About the same number in the same period last year. Throughout the year an average of 1.7 million visitors come to Baguio every year.
He also added that according to accredited tour guides the room occupancy reached as high as 90-95% during the Holy Week. “Sometimes, we are short of accommodations especially when there are too many visitors which is very nice because it also helps the nearby towns like La Union in terms of business.”
Unfortunately with the arrivals of tourists, he also stressed out that “pickpockets also proliferate. So when there are these lakbay-aral, we still have to tell them to take care of their personal belongings although Baguio has one of the top police forces in the country.”
And when asked about tourism budget, he aired that “even if almost 70-80% of the city’s income comes from tourism, we don’t have a tourism department. We are the tourism and special events division under the city administration’s office which is ironic because we are just a division. # Loridale J. Salariosa
