Saturday, November 26, 2016

Cagayan Valley tourism is on the rise

Philippine tourism data showed that from January to August 2016, Korea is the country’s top source of arrivals and has accumulated 976,499 arrivals for 2016, a share of 24.16%. The United States of America occupied the second spot with an aggregate 584,149 visitor arrivals, corresponding to 14.45% of the total. Visitors from China formed the 11.99% of the inbound traffic, equivalent to 484,567 arrivals. Japan followed with 367,144 arrivals, comprising 9.08% of the total inbound traffic. Australia which provided 161,016 arrivals secured the fifth spot, with 3.98% share of the total. Taiwan (+30.58%) took the sixth place by bringing a total of 157,517 visitors followed by Singapore with 120,241 total arrivals. Showing consistent double-digit growth are United Kingdom (+13.48%) with 117,535 arrivals and Canada (+11.52%) with 114,074 arrivals. Malaysia completed the top 10 with 95,129 visitor count. Hongkong and India claimed the 11th and 12th spot, respectively. Among the top 12 markets, China posted the highest growth of 50.29% followed by Taiwan with 30.58% increase.

One of the many places that has significantly increased in terms of tourism activity is Cagayan province in the Cagayan Valley region (Region 02). Local data point to the beaches of Santa Ana town in northern Cagayan where local and foreign tourists are flocking to enjoy the natural and unexploited beauty of the beaches, the hiking trails, the warm hospitality of the locals and relishing their time on worldclass resorts and hotels at rock-bottom prices.

Cagayan, the valley is located at the northeastern part of mainland Luzon covering an area of about 6,858.79 square kilometers making it the second largest region in the country. Bounded with the Pacific Ocean in the east and the protective mountain ranges of Caraballo on the west and Cordillera Mountain, the provinces of Nueva Ecija and Aurora on the south. Between the ranges is the valley where most of the population live and is criss-crossed by the mighty Cagayan River, the longest and widest in the country and its tributaries, which flow into the Babuyan Channel in the town of Aparri. The Pacific Ocean on the east coast and the Babuyan Channel on the north also skirt the mainland.

The Batanes group of Islands is located at the northernmost tip of the Philippine Archipelago surrounded by Bashi Channel on the north, Pacific Ocean on the east, Balintang Channel on the south and the West Philippine Sea on the west. Claveria, Cagayan has more than 890 kilometers of coastline and rich fishing grounds, particularly with the Babuyan and Balintang Channels on the north and the Palanan and Divilacan Bays on the east including its territorial seas within the 200 kilometer Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The region has four (4) minor volcanoes with several inactive fault lines, which include the Digdig Fault. The climate in the valley falls under Type 3 characterized by not very pronounced seasons- relatively dry from November to June and wet during the rest of the year. Cagayan Valley Region is composed of five provinces – Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino and four cities – Cauayan, Ilagan, Santiago and Tuguegarao (courtesy: Department of Tourism)

From swimming to caving you will never have enough of the printine natural wonders in the Cagayan Valley region. For starters, you may want to just browse a list by Trip Advisor Philippines, just click: