Subic: Now one of RP’s top tourist destinations

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT (PNA) – Subic appears to be the top favorite among tourist destinations in the country, particularly the past summer season, with more than 4.5 million local and foreign tourists, an increase of 169 percent from last year’s 1.7 percent for the same period.

Armin Santos, head of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) tourism department said, visited most are the latest tourist attractions like the Ocean Adventure and other eco-tourism oriented facilities.

Santos said SBMA chair Felicito Payumo changed the “total landscape’’ from the traditional beaches and (duty free) shopping to more eco-friendly tourism facilities like whale shows, jungle trekking and adventure sports, which have become alternative attractions for tourists from “all walks of life”.

The World Bank funded R810 million in infrastructure projects like the construction of roads and bridges, improvements and rehabilitation of existing road networks now nearing completion and are expected to enhance the Freeport as a viable site for investments.

The ongoing development project is part of the long term Master Plan providing “Intermodal Transpark” with the construction of the Subic-Clark toll road and the port modernization project to be funded by the Special Loan Package from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and improvement of Subic Bay International Airport.

These are also in conjunction with the Information Communications Technology (ICT) projects of SBMA such as the Ortho-GIS program to support the Land Resource Information System (LRIA) aiding the management of the vast Subic ecosystem.