STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS - Bacolod City

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Prospects for the convention market are also bright. Thousands are still
expected to come. Within this year, a number of organizations are set to
convene here. Early next year, we look forward to the first-ever national
gathering outside of Metro Manila of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines which
could mean as many as 4,000 visitors.
Latest figures from the City Tourism Office pegged total room capacity of
our hotels, pension houses, and other lodging places of varied categories at
2,234. When we started our term in mid-2004, this was only at 1,595 rooms.
This means therefore that in the last 4 years, 639 more rooms were added to our
capability to house visitors. This is a growth rate of 40% - - an investment by our
local businessmen which is now reaping benefits for our city in terms of
conventions and visitor arrivals. We can now even dare to claim that we have
more hotel rooms and lodging spaces than any city in Western Visayas. For this
development, we thank our local entrepreneurs for their confidence in the
business and tourism potential of our city and province.
The Bacolaodiat Festival, now on its 3 rd year of celebration, is becoming
another tourist event that is attracting a good number of visitors into our city. For
this development, we wish to thank the members of the Filipino-Chinese
community for their support of this effort.
Our main tourism event, the MassKara Festival, continues to draw record
crowds. It is our pride to share with you that our MassKara Festival won as First
Runner-up in the Best Tourism Event in the Philippines during the 8 th National
Convention of Tourism Officers held in Camarines Sur last October, 2007.
As part of our tourism promotions, our MassKara dancers also performed
last May, 2008 during the Pattaraday Unity Festival at Santiago City in Isabela,
Cagayan Valley and during the Sangyaw Festival in Tacloban City last June,
2008.
Our MassKara dance performance during the Regional Parade of
Festivals held last November 15, 2007 sponsored by the Department of Tourism
also won as “Best in Choreography” and “Best in Performance”.
Bacolod City co-hosted with the Province of Negros Occidental the
Western Visayas Regional Travel Assembly last November 14, 2007 where we
were personally given the “Regional Tourism Excellence Award-Western
Visayas Lifetime Achievement Award”.
For the success of our tourism promotions and initiatives, we would like to
acknowledge and thank the officials and staff of the Bacolod City Tourism Office
and Councilor Homer Bais, Chairman of the SP Committee on Tourism & Local,
International Cooperation, for his all-out support of our tourism programs.