The Provincial Tourism Office (PTO) reported that Oriental Mindoro’s overall tourism receipts reached over PHP360 million in March 2024.

In an interview on Wednesday, Edwin Navarro of the PTO’s planning department said the local tourism sector is now experiencing a sharp rebound from a pandemic slump.

He said during the first quarter of 2024, Oriental Mindoro registered 117,684 tourist arrivals, or more than 13 percent growth over the 104,049 tourist arrivals from January to March last year.

“The (tourism) industry is now seeing the benefits of a provincial tourism development master plan that was crafted during the pandemic. The pandemic was actually factored into the master plan,” he told the Philippine News Agency.

The overall tourism receipts consist of expenditures by international inbound visitors, including payments to national carriers for international transport, he said.

Tourist arrival last March climbed to 40,870 visitors from only 37,379 visitors during the same period in 2023 – or a 9.34 percent increase year-on-year, based on PTO’s latest data.

South Koreans are still Oriental Mindoro’s top international visitors, followed by the Chinese, Japanese, Hong Kong Chinese and Germans.

Navarro said strained relations between Manila and Beijing does not seem to have affected the arrival of Chinese tourists.

“If there will be a decline (in Chinese visitors) maybe we will see it in the coming months… but that has not happened yet,” he said.

He said this year, his office is counting on the resorts and other tourism spots that have been established around Oriental Mindoro’s many inland rivers to bring in more revenues.

He said the ongoing El Niño dry spell and the heat wave accompanying it may eventually result in a decline in tourists heading to the beaches because it may get too hot there.

Resorts near inland rivers will offer a cooler alternative to visitors, he added.

Navarro said the provincial government’s efforts to attract more summer tourists this year will be ramped up further with the Pandang Gitab Festival on April 30 and the Grand Santacruzan on May 1. (PNA)