Visitors of all ages, professionals, regular travelers on their leisure trips and youngsters, like kids in the primary years or high schools and college students on their educational tours with their teachers and parents arriving from various schools in the region, coming by vans, coasters or buses, would seldom miss this amiable and white-haired fellow ushering them to come in and take pictures of the place.
Doing the role of a tour-guide, the governor does the talking – orienting visitors of the place where he officially resides. What follows next is quite an endless picture-taking with the governor that takes more time than the allotted schedule for the tour. With most students taking such an opportunity to have a souvenir picture with the jolly fellow, teachers and accompanying parents would always follow through – thus giving almost everyone, perhaps a “once in a lifetime” chance to have a personalized “souvenir” photo shots with the “man of the house who happens to be the Governor of the Province of Capiz.
On record, around 162 buses, (each having approximately more than fifty tour participants) carrying more than eight thousand elementary kids, high school and college students from different schools all over the region, with several hundreds coming from Luzon and Mindanao, have visited the “mansion” since Governor Tanco was elected back in 2007. The figures do not include, however, the professional groups, regular travelers and the various LGU officials (including the barangay officials from different provinces, cities and municipalities all over the country on their “Lakbay Aral” trip) who dropped by to see the place and pay courtesy call to the governor.
By estimate, the governor’s mansion has become one major tourist attraction in the locality frequently visited by mostly first timers among other tourist attractions in the province. Locally based tour operators and those based outside the province have infused the mansion as part of the tour itinerary given to tour participants and group travelers who picked the Province of Capiz as their destination before or after their trip to or from nearby Boracay Island. The Province of Capiz has thus gained the reputation as a pleasant side trip when going to or after enjoying the world-class ambiance of Boracay. Its rustic beauty and seafood abundance is enough to lure every traveler with discriminating taste. By assessment, the popular image of the province as the country’s seafood capital has spread by leaps and bounds that those coming for the first time, and even those who have been coming back and forth, have with them the urge to savor the seafood, served best where it came from.
Going to various local tourist spots and feeling the distinct Capiceño hospitality has become an integral and formidable part of the tour package.
As a result, the Province of Capiz has been one of the top 20 destinations in the country visited by mostly domestic travelers which coincides with its being a tourist-friendly destination brought about by the hospitable people that greet every visitor with a smile and kind words of welcome, gracious host who manifest sincere gestures to be of service and gratitude for visiting the locality above all other destinations.
The improving occupancy rates of local hotels and the increasing number of accommodation establishments being constructed at a rather fast-paced succession only signifies that there is an active flow of tourists in the area and there is an increasing tourist influx observed year after year. (The Daily Guardian)
http://thedailyguardian.net/index.php/local-news-8/8709-gov-tanco-undoubtedly-regions-most-tourist-friendly-governor
