Baguio Flower Fest helps small, big businesses

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines  – Baguio Flower Festival, already on its 18th year, is boosting the businesses of both lowly street vendors and the big capitalists here.

Baguio Flower Festival executive committee chief of staff Dangal Guevarra said the month of February records the highest tourist arrivals in the city, estimated at 1 million from the opening day of the festival on February 1 until the first week of March.

Guevarra, Baguio Country Club manager and co-chairman of the organizing committee of the month-long festival, said the long weekend on February 22 to 25 is expected to double the tourist arrivals in the city.

With the estimated 1 million tourists who come only during the festival’s highlight (street dancing and float parades)  or to stay overnight in hotels and inns, Guevarra said Baguio businesses are expected to rake in P1 billion in sales and revenues.

He said an average person aspends about P1,000 for breakfast, lunch, snacks and pasalubong of strawberries, vegetables, even shirts and other products sold at the city market.  

“Multiply the P1,000 with the 1 million arrival, a conservative estimate of P1 billion fresh money is brought in the city from other places.”

The Department of Tourism pegs that a local tourist spends an average of P2,200 a day for food and accommodation.   A higher amount is estimated for foreign tourists.
Guevarra added that this revenue is apart from the taxes paid by business establishments and the taxes paid by stall occupants who rent out spaces at the market encounter that runs for a month and the "Session Road in Bloom" where different products are sold along the stretch of the city’s main thoroughfare for a week in time for the closing program.

He also said money coming in during fiestas creates a multiplier effect on the local economy by boosting businesses and generating jobs.

Guevarra, however,  admits they still have to get the actual number or arrivals for the month of February.
 
“We have commissioned Saint Louis University to conduct a research and find out the actual tourist arrival for Panagbenga as well as the economic effect of the festival to the Baguio,” he said. - Artemio A. Dumlao