NAGA CITY—Planning a vacation? Bicolandia has two enticing cluster offerings for tourists—“Almasor” and “Triple C.”
The Department of Tourism’s regional director, Maria Ravanilla, said the two are among the 78 tourism development areas (TDAs) in the country that the agency has been aggressively promoting. These were framed after the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) grouped the Bicol region provinces for synchronization and connectivity.
Almasor stands for Albay, Masbate Island and Sorsogon, a tourism alliance of three provinces in south Bicol. Triple C, on the other hand, represents the provinces of Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte and Catanduanes Island in north Bicol. The region is Luzon’s gateway to the Visayas and Mindanao.
A brainchild of Albay Governor Joey Salceda, Almasor was expected to complete its tourism development plan last month. Its tour packages take at least five days.
“One can start in Albay to enjoy watching Mayon Volcano and other ecotourism activities, then proceed to Donsol in Sorsogon for the butanding (whale shark) interaction, before hopping to a boat and heading to Ticao Island in Masbate to dive and observe manta rays at the Manta Bowl,” Ravanilla said.
Another option for tourists is to travel from Legazpi City in Albay to Sorsogon’s Bulusan Lake and on to the strip of white-pinkish beach on Subic Island in Matnog, also in Sorsogon.
From Matnog, they can proceed to the nearby town of Bulan to go to Ticao for the manta ray dive, then return to Sorsogon by boat through Donsol for butanding interaction, and end in Legazpi, where commercial planes and buses going to Manila and other places abound.
Ravanilla said a third tour package would start with a plane trip to Masbate for the Rodeo festival and other places to explore the island province. From there, tourists can hop to mainland Bicol through Donsol and take the hourlong road trip to Legazpi, or a distance of 47 kilometers.
On their own initiatives, Albay and Sorsogon achieved significant growths in tourist arrivals of 67 percent and 46 percent, respectively, in 2012. Albay accounted for 523,832 tourist arrivals and Sorsogon, 173,700.
The two Camarines provinces and Catanduanes have yet to formally establish Triple C, Ravanilla said.
What is operational now is the Caramoan-Catanduanes Link, which was started earlier by the DOT to revitalize tourist traffic between Guijalo in Caramoan, Camarines Sur, to Codon Port in San Andres town in Catanduanes.
Caramoan—where island hopping is the most popular activity for tourists who are mainly lured by the prospect of seeing the sites where the reality television series “Survivor” was filmed by several networks from the United States and other countries—is 45 minutes by boat from Codon and visible in the horizon.
Ravanilla said Triple C plans could be synchronized with surfing and other water sports activities in Puraran Beach in Baras, Catanduanes; wakeboarding at Camsur Watersports Complex (CWC) in Pili, Camarines Sur; and surfing off Bagasbas Beach in Daet, Camarines Norte.
Another route starts in Catanduanes, which is about an hour by plane from Manila, and ends in Caramoan from Condon Port. After enjoying Catanduanes and the islands in Caramoan, tourists can proceed to CWC, Bagasbas Beach and Calaguas Island.
From Manila, it takes about five hours by car to reach the highway town of Sta. Elena in Camarines Norte, or a distance of more than 250 kilometers.