In celebration of the 29th National Statistics Month last October, the Institute of Statistics conducted various activities in line with the theme, “Exploring Philippine Wonders in Numbers: Statistics Towards Sustainable Tourism Development”.
INSTAT kicked-off the celebration with the opening of a weeklong exhibit highlighting the tourism industry in Laguna. Three posters were exhibited. The first poster, “Laguna in a Snapshot,” focused on the demography of Laguna. The poster included interesting facts such as sex ratio, education profile, and populous municipalities and cities in the province. The second poster, “Tara! Mag-Food Trip sa Laguna,” presented the most famous food delicacies that each municipality can offer. These delicacies include: buko pie for Los Banos, puto for Binan, monay in Bay, pineapple in Calamba, “itlog na pula” or salted egg in Victoria, “kesong puti” or white cheese in Lumban, bibinka de macapuno in Sta. Cruz, and espasol in Pagsanjan. The third poster, “Biyahe Tayo sa Laguna,” focused on the tourism statistics of the province. These statistics included total tourist arrivals and total tourist establishments. It also showed that tourists from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia are the top visitors in the province. The poster also showed that the top tourists attractions: hotspring resorts in Calamba, the amusement park and international companies in Sta. Rosa City, the Seven Lakes in San Pablo City, the St. John the Baptist Church, Pasalubong Center, and Footwear Trade Fair in Liliw, and Makiling Botanic Gardens and the BSP Makiling Camp in UP Los Banos.
The second poster, “Tara! Mag-Food Trip sa Laguna,” presented the most famous food delicacies that each municipality can offer. These delicacies include: buko pie for Los Banos, puto for Binan, monay in Bay, pineapple in Calamba, “itlog na pula” or salted egg in Victoria, “kesong puti” or white cheese in Lumban, bibinka de macapuno in Sta. Cruz, and espasol in Pagsanjan. The third poster, “Biyahe Tayo sa Laguna,” focused on the tourism statistics of the province. These statistics included total tourist arrivals and total tourist establishments. It also showed that tourists from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia are the top visitors in the province. The poster also showed that the top tourists attractions: hotspring resorts in Calamba, the amusement park and international companies in Sta. Rosa City, the Seven Lakes in San Pablo City, the St. John the Baptist Church, Pasalubong Center, and Footwear Trade Fair in Liliw, and Makiling Botanic Gardens and the BSP Makiling Camp in UP Los Banos.
On top of this celebration, INSTAT held a special seminar entitled, “Symposium on Tourism Statistics.” The special seminar provided a venue for sharing experiences from Local Government Units (LGU), undergraduate and graduate students, faculty members, and the private sector. Three speakers were invited to share their experiences. Prof. Ronald R. Roldan Jr. of INSTAT shared his research in the analytics framework of using social media data to determine tourist movement and dynamics in the country. His talk highlighted the use of Twitter data to determine influx and seasonality of tourist arrivals which directly impacts policies on sustainable tourism programs. The second speaker, Dr. Rico C. Ancog of the School of Environmental Science and Management in UPLB, presented results of their research on impact assessment of coral rehabilitation project. His research team found that the project boosted the recreational value of the chosen sites. The last talk was given by Mr. Ramil S. Basuel, Senior Tourism Operations Officer of the Tourism Development Planning, Research and Information Management of the Department of Tourism Industry. With the tourism industry highlighted in the 29th NSM, Mr. Basuel expressed his gratitude to INSTAT and the Philippine Statistical System. He presented the records of the tourism industry in the Philippines. Mr. Basuel emphasized the fact that the industry is economically valuable but has not been fully utilized. He opened opportunities for research collaboration to handle the demand of process tourism data for effective policy-making. At the end of the seminar, Dr. Liza Comia, INSTAT Director, thanked the participants from LGUs, graduate and undergraduate programs, and the organizers for attending and actively participating in the various activities of INSTAT in line with the 29th NSM celebration.
