By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The Provincial Tourism Office (PTO) yesterday revealed a lot of Negros Occidental’s hotels, resorts and other accommodation establishments are now fully booked for the Holy Week, which takes place on the first week of April.

In an interview with RMN DYHB-Bacolod yesterday, PTO head, Dr. Jennylind Cordero, said accommodation establishments, especially those located in northern Negros, are already fully booked just hours after the province formally reopened its borders to tourists yesterday morning.

Cordero said around 60 to 70 percent of the province’s accommodation establishments are already fully operational.

But despite the climbing number of tourist arrivals being expected for the period, Cordero said there is still no word as to when the Mambukal Resort in Murcia town will be reopened to the public as renovations are still being conducted in the popular holiday spot, which is also owned by the provincial government.

Mambukal Resort had been closed since April 2020, and the facility was temporarily used as a quarantine facility for arriving overseas Filipinos and locally stranded individuals.

Cordero further added that the Panaad sa Negros Festival will also not take place this year, as funds for the event had been redirected to the province’s COVID-19 response.

Negros Occidental has been reopened to travelers yesterday morning in line with Resolution No. 101 issued by the National Inter-Agency Task Force which introduced uniform travel protocols./DGB, WDJ