Caraga will have a lot more tourists in 2023

MindanaoHerald | Caraga will have a lot more tourists in 2023 | BUTUAN CITY – The Department of Tourism (DOT) 13 (Caraga) thinks that more tourists will come this year than last, even more than the 92.1 percent rise that was seen last year.

There will be even more arrivals in 2023 because more flights will be back in the Caraga region, especially to Siargao Island, which is where most of our arrivals come from, DOT-13 Director Ivonnie Dumadag said in an interview Wednesday.

Burundi, Palawan, and Siargao all won the 2023 Condé Nast Traveler (CNT) Top 10 Readers’ Choice Awards. The awards were given out early last month.
The island was also at the top of the CNT’s list in 2021.

Since there are no longer any checks at the borders, Dumadag said she thinks this year’s tourist landings will be higher than the numbers in 2022 and 2021, which were 725,766 and 377,441, respectively.

Dumadag also stressed how important it was to get correct tourist information from local sources, especially from local governments and private stakeholders, in order to get this year’s real arrival numbers.

She said that the record for this year is still being gathered and done at the neighborhood level.

Last year, a total of 711,059 people came from within the country, and 14,207 came from outside the country.

The DOT-13 says that there were a lot more visitors to Surigao del Norte last year (183,528; 174,303 domestic; 9,225 foreign) than there were in 2021 (28,287; 27,553 domestic; 734 foreign); to the Dinagat Islands in 2022 (16,818; 16,777 domestic; 41 foreign) than there were in 2021 (1,091 domestic visits); and to Surigao del Sur last year (70,916 domestic visitors) than the year before (12,722 domestic visits).

In 2022, 54,300 people visited Agusan del Sur, including 54,141 Filipinos and 159 foreigners. This was up from 36,715 people visiting in 2021 (36,697 Filipinos and 18 foreigners).

Only the province of Agusan del Norte had fewer people last year than the year before: 31,037 domestic visits compared to 124,507 domestic visits in 2021.

Out of all the towns in the area, Surigao City had the most visitors last year, with 143,770 (140,884 domestic, 2,886 foreign) visits, up from 56,575 (55,862 domestic, 713 foreign) visits the year before.

Tandag City went from 51,071 visits (50,976 domestic, 95 foreign) to 105,904 visits (104,119 domestic, 1,785 foreign). Butuan City went from 31,076 visits (31,074 domestic, 2 foreign) to 56,656 visits (56,600 domestic, 56 foreign). (via PNA)