Bataan’s Ibong Dayo Festival makes National Calendar of Events
The Department of Tourism (DOT)-Region 3 announced that they may be including the annual Ibong Dayo (migrant birds) Festival of this city in the national calendar of events after the recently concluded festivity reached milestones in attendance and sustainability.
The third Ibong Dayo Festival held in the Balanga City Wetland and Nature Park (BCWNP) may be listed in the calendar after it breached the three years needed of consecutive implementation, DOT-Region 3 Director Ronaldo Tiotuico disclosed.
Balanga City Mayor Jose Enrique Garcia III welcomed the news and affirmed that the sustainability of the festival will be of “no problem.” “This is a very good development coming from DOT. We now have a bigger chance of promoting our festival and attract more tourists,” said Garcia.
With this prospect of bigger stage in tourism, the Presidential Lingkod Bayan honoree said the third phase of the costal park BCWNP will be started next year. This includes the construction of a trail going to the mangrove area, a platform for staging events, a landscape, and added facilities.
“Every week, there are hundreds of students from Manila and Central Luzon coming here as part of their Lakbay Kalikasan. Developments will be made to make sure tourism in Balanga will maintain an upward trend,” said Garcia.
Tiotuico added that DOT is willing to provide technical assistance to the city government for the promotion of the festival from crafting flyers to advertisements in national papers. He said they can also extend financial subsidy.
“This Ibong Dayo is a big contribution to achieve our target of 4.5 million foreign tourist arrivals by December 30. We get a lot of foreign birders,” said Tiotuico. According to the City Tourism Office, about 3,000 foreign and local visitors, student, and birdwatchers graced the event which topped last year’s over 1,000 attendance.
The visitors came from Cebu and Samar and as far as Malaysia and Indonesia among others. (CLJD/JMG-PIA 3)
