LEGAZPI CITY -- Posting an impressive 77 percent improvement over previous year’s performance, Naga City and Camarines Sur combined took the highest number of tourist arrivals in Bicol, in fact more than half of the regional total for the year 2007.

        In a report on the regional distribution of travelers in Bicol prepared by the regional office of the Department of Tourism here, Naga/Camarines Sur registered a total number of 456,911 tourists, domestic and foreign, for the period January to December last year. This is slightly more than half the regional total of 897,680 tourists that visited Bicol during that period.

        The report also showed that Naga/Camarines Sur’s performance is also about three times higher than the number of tourists posted by erstwhile top tourist drawer Legazpi/Albay which garnered a total of 141,855 tourists or an increase of only 6 percent over previous year’s performance which was 133,440 in 2006.

        Next higher performer over previous year’s record is the island province of Catanduanes which churned out an impressive 76 percent increase, from 29,026 in 2006 to 51,055 tourist arrivals in 2007.

        The other island province of Masbate produced a total of 107,008 tourists, or 39 percent higher than its total tourist arrivals of 77,130 tourists in 2006.

        Camarines Norte posted an improved performance of 10 percent, from 73,539 in 2006 to 80,936 in 2007.

        Of the six provinces in Bicol, only Sorsogon posted a negative 8 percent in its performance as it was only able to draw a total of 59,915 tourists in 2007, which was 5,369 short of its 65,384 tourists recorded in 2006.

        Sorsogon, despite its Butanding, is also known to be rebel-infested where there have been incidents of clashes between government troopers and the communist guerrillas, aside from the alarming cases of extra-judicial killings by both sides.

        Both Albay and Sorsogon felt the brunt of recent volcanic eruptions and ash falls and were heavily battered by floods and typhoons during the past two years.

        Still, Naga/Camarines Sur registered the highest number of foreign tourists in 2007 at 45,626 compared to Legazpi/Albay’s 36,608.

        From January to September 2007, according to an earlier report by the DOT regional office, Legazpi/Albay was leading in the number of foreign tourists, 36,000 vs Naga/Camarines Sur’s 28,851, until the figures changed during the final quarter of the year with Naga/Camarines Sur finally breaking away with almost 9,000 foreign tourists more.

        In the previous year, or in 2006, Naga/Camarines Sur also outclassed Legazpi/Albay in foreign tourist arrivals, 25,832 vs 8,765.

        While the total regional tally of tourist arrivals totalled only 897,680, or 103,320 short of hitting the one million mark, Bicol nonetheless recorded an improvement of 41 percent over previous year’s performance. In 2006, Bicol was able to draw a total of 637,127 tourists, both domestic and foreign.

        The total number of foreign tourists that came to Bicol doubly improved from 49,304 in 2006 to 105,608 in 2007.

        Of the six provinces, Masbate posted the least number of foreign tourists at only 2,645, followed by Camarines Norte with 2,744.

        Catanduanes took a big leap in drawing foreign tourists, from 3,181 in 2006 to 10,390 in 2007.