Tuesday, April 15, 2008 [ sunstar.com.ph ]
A RESORT owner in Boracay will push for promoting a heritage tour of the island—including Aklan province—luring more Cebuanos and other domestic and foreign tourists through more offerings for leisure activities.
“Aklan is popular because of Boracay. But there’s more to the province than the white beaches,” said Charlie Uy, owner of Patio Pacific resort in Boracay located along Station 1.
In an interview with Sun.Star Cebu, Uy said that with his 66-room beach resort and his 18-unit tourist transport business, Island Star Express, he envisions developing a heritage tour of Aklan.
The tour will highlight not only Boracay Island but also the province’s churches, the Hawili Waterfalls and the livelihood activities like pottery making and the piña cloth weaving popular in Kalibo, Aklan, among others.
Uy said he will spearhead the creation of the heritage tour and will present this proposal to the local tour operators and the provincial government, and further gain accreditation from the Department of Tourism.
At present, he said, the tour is not yet available to tourists; however, it is slated for operation toward the end of the year.
Once it materializes, Uy said, tourists will have the option of first getting a glimpse of the cultural and heritage sites of Aklan before heading to Boracay Island.
Repeat visitors
Uy, who is also president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry-Boracay, is optimistic the heritage tour will be a “hit” among “repeat visitors,” especially those seeking more leisure activities to do in Boracay.
Boracay is one of the country’s most popular beach resort destinations as it boasts of a long stretch of powdery white- sand beaches.
Yu earlier said Boracay, whose tourism potentials have been growing “leaps and bounds,” registered some 600,000 tourists last year.
Million
He said local tourism stakeholders are targeting to attract one million tourists in the next two years.
Domestic tourists still account largely for the total number of visitor arrivals in the island, while the number of foreign tourists—Europeans, Americans, Chinese and Koreans—is growing significantly year-on-year.
At present, Uy said, there are about 4,000 rooms in Boracay Island alone.
Entry points to the island include Caticlan and Kalibo in Aklan, with both airport terminals catering to 40 flights daily from domestic airline carriers. (MMM)
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