80-K tourists visit Baguio during three-day holiday

Business booming 

By Gaby B. Keith

BAGUIO CITY -- An estimated 80,000 local tourists visited this mountain hideaway during the long weekend from Nov. 24-26, the City Tourism Operations Office said.
    City Tourism Officer Aloysius Mapalo said the surge in tourists' arrivals during the long weekend was manifested by the hotel occupancy rate which ranged from 90 to 100 percent.
    It was also during the long weekend that the city government opened the Botanical Garden Christmas Metamorphosis — a prelude to the city's month-long calendar of yuletide events dubbed "An Enchanting Baguio Christmas" — giving the visitors some good idea on what to expect in the Summer Capital the whole December.
    He said a similar trend is expected in all weekends of December, the month being a perennial tourist peak season in the city.
    He said heavy traffic was experienced in major attractions in the city, particularly in the Botanical Garden, Camp John Hay, Baguio Country Club Christmas Village, Wright Park, Igorot Stone Kingdom and Mirador Eco-park.
    As of October, the City Tourism Office has recorded 787,572 tourist arrivals.
    The city's tourist data are 1,042,309 in 2022; 247,480 in 2021; 1,536,458 in 2019; 1,760,729 in 2018; 1,521,748 in 2017; and 1,294,906 in 2016.
    The tourist data could be higher as they only include visitors who stayed in the registered accommodation establishments (AEs) that submitted their occupancy reports.
    The figures do not include the day tourists who did not stay in AEs and those who made use of AEs but were unreported.