Success Stories

By investing in tourism data to back up investment promotion programs, Naga City has attracted new real estate investments and is now expecting 200 new rooms to open early next year, among several other developments.

This was according to Alec Francis Santos, Chief-of-Office of Naga City’s Arts, Culture, and Tourism Office (ACTO). “Tourism data provides supply and demand information for potential investors. It also validates an LGU’s investment plan and guides its priorities,” says Santos.

From a city that did not start collecting its own tourist arrival data until 2013, Naga City has now become one of the most innovative local government units (LGU) in the country in terms of collecting and analyzing tourism data.

Software Development

As a landlocked destination without white sand beaches to offer, it was challenging for Naga to attract tourism investments. Moreover, Naga did not have sufficient data to convince investors of the opportunities in tourism because until 2012, it relied on regional data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the provincial government of Camarines Sur. These data could not show how much Metro Naga was contributing to the region’s tourism industry.

In 2012, Metro Naga Development Council (MNDC) was selected as one of the pioneer project sites of the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Government of Canada through its Local Governance Support Program for Local Economic Development (LGSP-LED). Through this, in pursuit of LED, Naga City ACTO was able to gather its own tourist arrival data from January to September 2013 for the first time.

Learning as they went, and working closely with accommodation establishments, ACTO began to develop the Metro Naga Tourism Statistics System (MNTSS), a computer application especially made for accelerating tourism data collection, consolidation, and analysis. As an LGU initiative, the MNTSS balances the interest of the local government for timely, comprehensive data with the local tourism establishments’ concern for privacy and security.

Naga ACTO proceeded to collect information that would be crucial for potential investors. On the supply side, the MNTSS is a database that provides a general profile of the hotel industry and other information including the number of rooms and types of accommodation available. It also provides demand-related data such as visitor arrivals and occupancy rates.

Sharing MNTSS to Other LGUs

With support from Naga City’s Local Chief Executive, Mayor John Bongat, ACTO is now assisting other LGUs to improve their own tourism data collection and analysis.

Alec Santos trains 27 tourism officers from LGSP-LED’s partner LGUs on tourism statistics and information systems at Ace Hotel and Suites, Pasig City. Alec Santos’s of the experience in the Naga City Arts Culture and Tourism Office led him and his team to develop their own software in collecting and analyzing data. Photo by: Meriam Otarra

Santos was the resource speaker for the Training on LGU Tourism Statistics and Information Systems (TSIS) on August 18-20, 2015 at Ace Hotel and Suites, Pasig City. Twenty-seven tourism officers from the partner-LGUs of LGSP-LED and the Department of Tourism who listened to Santos’ presentation are now testing version 2.0 of the MNTSS in their respective LGUs.

LGSP-LED continues to tap Metro Naga’s experience as a model in enabling its other partner-LGUs to create local business environment that are conducive to investments and job creation.#

For more information contact:

Local Governance Support Program for Local Economic Development (LGSP-LED)
25th Floor, Bureau of Local Government Development, DILG-NAPOLCOM Center
EDSA Corner Quezon Avenue, Quezon City, Philippines 1100
T: (+63) 2 294-3810
F: (+63) 2 294-3816