Puerto Princesa to get P3 B in tourism investments

PUERTO PRINCESA, Philippines – Over P3 billion in tourism investments will be poured into this city to cope with the surge in visitor arrivals, the city government said in a statement yesterday. 

There will be an expansion of resort facilities and convention rooms in anticipation of an estimated two million tourist arrivals once the upgraded airport starts operating in 2017. 

The city government said it is also improving the police station in the Puerto Princesa Underground River, a United Nations natural wonder, by constructing a two-story detachment costing P5.1 million.

Other investments being planned for Puerto Princesa are the Canigaran footbridge, the 5,000-seat convention center and 2,000-capacity auditorium and the Baywalk restaurant complex to serve seafood and halal food. 

The new Puerto Princesa Airport terminals and taxiways, to be designed and built by Korean Kumho Industrial Co. Ltd., is expected to attract two million local and foreign tourists each year. 

The current airport can only handle 350,000 passengers a year that when visitor arrivals rose to 1.35 million in 2013, tourists’ complaints went viral on social media sites.

Puerto Princesa City Mayor Lucilo Bayron in his recent state of the city address said the last two years of his first term will produce concrete programs and projects to realize the people’s dreams and aspirations for a “model city of the future.”    

He said the Tourism Infrastructure and Economic Zone Authority has also pledged P50 million to design and build the Sabang Terminal Building at the Sabang Pier.