Boats anchored on the beach of Basul Island, one of the 17 islands in Surigao, which is 15 to 20 minutes away from the port of the northeastern Mindanao city. (photo by erwin mascariñas)
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By ERWIN MASCARIÑAS
Correspondent .

BUTUAN City — The Surigao City Tourism Office is riding on the popularity of Siargao Island in Surigao del Norte to boost the city’s own tourism potentials.

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This as the tourism influx to Surigao City increased although it suffered a setback as a result of the 2017 earthquakes.

“We are slowly recovering from the devastation as well as in our tourism promotion. We hope that with the popularity of Siargao Island, we will get a boost from the increased tourist arrivals,” said Roselyn Armida Merlin, supervising operations officer of the Surigao City tourism office.

Merlin said the city has been receiving a windfall because of Siargao Island, noting that tourists who go to Siargao also go to Surigao City before or after their trip to the island.

Merlin said tourists  would need to book flights from Manila to Surigao City or Butuan City. Either way, they’d pass Surigao City  before jumping off to a Siargao-bound boat.

“We have a chance to show them what our city has to offer,” Merlin said.

“We are now redirecting our thrust towards our island destinations,” she said.

Surigao City alone boasts of 17 islands and islets with 54 barangays, 33 in the mainland and 21 island barangays.

Data from Surigao’s tourism office show the tourist arrivals, domestic and foreign, at 299,977 people in 2016 but this declined to 271,904 last year. Officials attributed this to the 2017 earthquakes.

From January to April, this year, Surigao counted 24,176 tourists, domestic and foreign, a bit higher than the 21,574 during the same period last year.

That is not much, said Merlin,  “but this is a good sign as it indicates an increase… we hope that we can gain more.”

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