Ilocos Norte continues to carve its name as the Philippines\u2019 premiere tourism hub after being named as grand winner of the 2023 Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines (ATOP) Pearl Awards on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The province also won the best video for tourism promotions – provincial level for its \u201cLolita is IN!\u201d tourism campaign, featuring a sexagenarian who traveled to Ilocos Norte in search of adventure.<\/p>\n
The tourism video presents the natural beauty and culture of the province while highlighting strong family ties, values, and traditions — experiences that made \u201cLola Lolita\u2019s\u201d journey to Ilocos a joy.<\/p>\n
“Our unwavering dedication to promoting Ilocos Norte tourism has earned the province the prestigious award. This recognition is a testament to the entire province\u2019s collective effort in making Ilocos Norte a top destination for travelers,\u201d Xavier Ruiz, the province\u2019s tourism officer-in-charg, said in a statement after receiving the award at the 24th ATOP national convention held in Boracay Island, Aklan province.<\/p>\n
Despite having a limited budget, Ilocos Norte provincial treasurer Josephine Calajate, in an interview Friday, said the province\u2019s tourism advertisement has produced optimum results.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the hard work, brilliant ideas, and the unity of all tourism stakeholders have paid off. Hurray to the best tourism-oriented province in the Philippines, Ilocos Norte,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The province received the same award in 2018, and was the second runner-up in 2019, and first runner-up both in 2016 and 2017.<\/p>\n
Government records on tourism arrivals showed a significant increase from 800,000 in 2021 to almost three million in 2022.<\/p>\n
The province also garnered an estimated PHP8.8 billion in tourism receipts in 2022, which accelerated the recovery of the tourism industry — a major economic powerhouse as it employs thousands, including those in the informal sectors.<\/p>\n
ATOP recognizes the best practices of local government units (LGUs) in terms of creating and implementing policy reforms for tourism development. (PNA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ilocos Norte steals the spotlight as the ultimate tourism destination, winning big at the prestigious ATOP Pearl Awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-society"],"pageone_source":{"pageone_source":"","author_name":"PAGEONE Online Network"},"_pageone_source":"","zyndk8_nxtgen_metadata":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/energetic-pink-donkey.109-123-235-239.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/energetic-pink-donkey.109-123-235-239.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/energetic-pink-donkey.109-123-235-239.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energetic-pink-donkey.109-123-235-239.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energetic-pink-donkey.109-123-235-239.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/energetic-pink-donkey.109-123-235-239.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energetic-pink-donkey.109-123-235-239.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/energetic-pink-donkey.109-123-235-239.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energetic-pink-donkey.109-123-235-239.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energetic-pink-donkey.109-123-235-239.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}