By Mae Singuay

Hotels in Bacolod City are now fully-booked in time for the MassKara Festival which starts today.

City Tourism Office (CTO) head, Ma. Teresa Manalili said 22 hotels have been fully-booked until the third week, from October 16 to 22, the festival highlights.

There are 22 hotels in the city, with more than 1,500 rooms, accredited by the Department of Tourism.

The CTO is targeting around 200,000 domestic and international tourist arrivals for the festival.

Based on the records in October 2022, there were 34,000 hotel check-ins, 27,000 Mabuhay accommodations, 50,000 airport arrivals, and 100,000 arrivals at the Banago and Bredco ports.

Manalili hopes the number of tourist arrivals will surpass this year.

A national convention of the Association of Government Accountants of the Philippines will also be held in the third week of this month.

Around 3,000 delegates are expected to arrive during the convention.

Manalili said they had already coordinated with the Negros Occidental tourism office to prepare hotels in the local government units neighboring Bacolod, such as the cities of Bago, Talisay and Silay./MS, WDJ