Pilgrimage a growing market in Calabarzon

MANILA, Philippines — Faith-based tourism or pilgrimage areas will be given a promotion push by the Calabarzon unit of the Department of Tourism (DOT) next year, a regional official said.

In an interview, DOT Region 4A director Rebecca Llabit told The STAR that Calabarzon would target pilgrims as one of its top source markets for next year.

While Llabit did not disclose any specific initiatives for the faith tourism sector next year, she emphasized that it has already been a growing sector in the past few years.

“The Calabarzon region is very strong on faith tourism and largely, that’s why we have the most number of same day visitors is because of our pilgrimage areas,” Llabit said.

Among the top faith tourism destinations in Calabarzon frequented by pilgrims are the Kamay ni Hesus Shrine and the Our Lady of Sorrows church in Quezon, Padre Pio Shrine and Monte Maria in Batangas, and the Regina Rica in Rizal.

In 2016, Calabarzon’s same day arrivals reached over 26 million.

Llabit said the region has witnessed tremendous arrivals growth in the past three years compared to the nine million same day arrivals registered in 2013.

“The reason why we are very heavy on arrivals, especially for domestic, is most of the provinces Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon are destinations for pilgrimages and faith,” Llabit earlier said.

The regional director said in a previous interview that individuals visiting Calabarzon for faith and pilgrimage purposes averages around two million a year per province.

“So if I have five destinations (five provinces), that’s already 10 million,” Llabit said.

For this year, Llabit said the Calabarzon tourism unit has been focused on the development of new and emerging tourists destinations and as well as farm tourism.

The Calabarzon is aiming to grow its visitor arrivals figures to around 28 million to 30 million visitors this year.

Partial data from the DOT showed that a total of 12 million same day tourists visited the Calabarzon region in the first three months of 2017.