The province of South Cotabato has finally recovered from drought of tourist arrivals as 434,706 domestic and foreign tourists visited the province from January 1 – March 31 this year, the Arts, Culture, Tourism and Museum (ACTM) Unit reported.
South Cotabato suffered from a low first quarter tourist arrivals performance last year of 93,721 in January , 85,658 in February and zero in March for a total of only 179,379 domestic and foreign tourists. The country was placed then on a General Community Quarantine (GCQ) or lockdown due to the global CoViD-19 pandemic upon orders of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte starting March 15 until May 15, the peak of tourist arrivals nationwide.
Domestic visitors accounted to 434,686 arrivals, according to ACTM, while 20 were foreign nationals comprising of 7 Chinese, 5 South Koreans, 5 Americans and 3 Indians.
Lake Sebu is still the favorite tourist destination with148,409 visitors followed by Tupi at 98,120, Norala – 81, 492, Banga – 48,400, City of Koronadal – 34,355, Tboli – 8,623, Surallah – 6,380, Tampakan – 5,990, Tantangan – 3,278, Polomolok – 1,314, Sto. Nino -145.
The 2021 first quarter tourist arrivals recorded an upward trend with January registering 121,654 visitors, February at 146,325 and March at 166,727.
During the 2020 pandemic, South Cotabato registered only a total of 304,605 first quarter tourist arrivals.(photo cr.(photo credit:google.com)
It registered total tourist arrivals of 1,683,555 in 2019 and then dropped dramatically to 400,511 in 2020 due to the pandemic.
