LEGAZPI CITY -- The Department of Tourism regional office here has linked arms with two other regions in the Visayas and Mindanao to promote major tourism destinations, investments, and products through the roll-on-roll-off (RORO) nautical highway route spanning the area.

        Bicol Regional Tourism Director Maria ‘Nini’ Ravanilla said the representatives from the three regions – tourism officers, local officials, tour operators, businessmen and selected media practitioners -- would be on a 7-day inter-regional caravan that will be crossing the route on board buses and ferryboats from Bicol to the Visayas and the Caraga region in Mindanao from August 9 to 15.

        “We came up with this program to foster partnership among stakeholders in the three regions to promote our products and eco-tourism destinations through RORO as a flagship program of the Department of Tourism fully supported by the Office of the President,” Ravanilla said.

        A back-to-back display and exhibit of unique icons will be showcased while an investment forum with local business groups will be conducted at every stop-over in each region, the regional tourism officer said.

        “We will be forging strong partnership with Visayas and Mindanao to come up with a most dynamic and comprehensive domestic plan to promote tourism in the countryside,” Ravanilla added.

        Tourism officials in Bicol disclosed they are expecting more tourists to come especially when the Daraga international airport would have been completed. Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said they are closely monitoring the start of the airport construction even as he disclosed that Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during a Cabinet meeting held in this city not long ago underscored the urgency of speeding up the construction of the P3.4 billion international airport.

        Salceda said that the President had issued a directive to the Department of Transportation and Communication to expedite the construction of the airport which should be finished before the end of 2010.