Archive for May, 2008
“The Other Tourist Destinations in Palawan”
The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park is not the only top grosser tourist destination in Palawan. In fact, it is just one of the many tourist destinations with similar strong capability to draw in the tourists with their money!
Honda Bay is another top grosser. It is the body of water in front of Puerto Princesa City which can be viewed from the balcony of the ranch of late Speaker Ramon V. Mitra. But, viewing it is far from the thrill and excitement that one could feel when one will do island hopping of the breathtaking Honda Bay! For only P1,200.00 per person, and a maximum of 6 persons you can have island hopping on board a pump boat that will take you to the fantastic islands in the bay. I was not able to do Island hopping this time. Let me then share with you my experience the last time I island-hopped Honda Bay. It started with a 15-minute motorcycle ride from the City to barangay Tagburos, which is where the pump boats are anchored. We departed Tagburos at 7:00 a.m., the pump boat took our group from one Island to another (Starfish Island, Cowrie Island, Dos Palmas, Snake Island, LULI for Lulubog Lilitaw sandbar etc…) which are all fine white sand Islands where we had snorkeling and spent time viewing the fantastic virgin corals with themulti-colored fishes. We also did fish feeding, swimming and sun bathing. Once we felt bored in one island, we asked our pump boat operator to move us to the next island. We had our lunch in the island of our choice.
Read More..>>“The Investments of the Palawan Local Government on its Tourism Industry”
I have mentioned in my previous posts that the 80 kilometer stretch of road from Puerto Princesa to Sabang (the take off point to the mouth of the underground river) is now half concrete (45 kilometers actually), 20 kilometers of rough road, and 15 kilometers of under construction road. The concreting of the road which is a city road as it is within the boundary of Puerto Princesa City may be considered as the biggest monetary investment of the local government o fPuerto Princesa City. It is a very important support infrastructure that definitely boosted the influx of both foreign and local tourists as it means convenient, fast and safe travel.
However, I would consider the investment of the City of Puerto Princesa in education as the most effective investment that would sustain the influx of tourists to the City and the Province. I am talking about the countless number of hours/months that they have invested in trainings for all of the important service providers in their tourism industry.
Read More..>>“Getting Inside the Underground River”
The fiber glass boat is allowed only to have 8 passengers who must wear helmet and life vest. It was manned by a boat man who, I learned later from our tour guide, is actually a forest ranger but was being pulled out to beef up the regular boatmen because of the unusual number of visitors for the past several days. The boat man doubled up as the tour guide giving us important facts and figures about the underground river as he paddled our boat. Not only that, he has a good sense of humor giving us a good laugh.
A passenger at the front side of the boat is designated as the light man, who has to hold a battery-powered flashlight to light our way inside the darkness of the cave. The battery is same as the battery of our cars so that it can give out a good illumination that would help us appreciate the formations inside the cave.
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“The Economics of the Palawan Underground River as a Tourist Destination”
The same pump boat manned by a pump boat operator and assisted by a boat helper that took us from Sabang to the mouth of the underground river waited for us and ferried us back to Sabang. I asked the pump boat operator, how many trips had they made since morning until the time that we were his passengers. He sai that we were only his third trip and it was already 3:00 p.m. when we arrived Sabang. He confided to me that there were 43 pump boats that were ferrying the large volume of guests that arrived since early morning.
After disembarking from the pump boat, I went straight to the control table and asked the latest number of visitors that had so far registered. The lady told me that as of that time they had logged the 1,053th guest. There were less than 100 visitors that were still waiting for their turn to board the pump boat to take them to the mouth of the underground river.
We were already on board our van back to Puerto Princesa when I started to do my mental calculation on the economics of the underground river as a tourist destination. I started with the figures I got from the boat operator and the visitor control table.
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