IBA, Zambales — Visitors to Zambales are now in for more satisfying stay-cation experience with the opening of more hotels and other accommodation throughout the province that were designed to suit individual taste and budget.

From beach and farm camp sites where visitors can rough it with tents and cooking fire to resort hotels complete with resto-bar and swimming pool, Zambales has now got wider choices that range from the basic to the luxurious.

Best of all, most of the accommodation establishments in the province also offer facilities for activities like swimming, surfing and skimming, as well as packages for trekking, boating, and tours.

Among the more popular sites in Zambales are beach resorts in San Antonio, San Narciso, San Felipe, Cabangan, Botolan, Iba, and Candelaria towns. Farm resorts and river attractions meanwhile pack in visitors to Botolan, Palauig, and Masinloc.

While travel restrictions and border controls under the Covid-19 pandemic hobbled the country’s tourism industry, more establishments catering to visitors mushroomed in the last three years in Zambales.

The Zambales Provincial Tourism Office (ZPTO) said that accommodation establishments in Zambales totaled 340 last year—more than double that of the 2018 pre-pandemic count of 151.

The phenomenal growth of accommodation establishments here was attributed to the development of new attractions during the pandemic to provide visitors with open spaces where they could have both leisure and safety. These included pool resorts, farm resorts, and campsites.

Beach communities currently have the biggest number of tourism accommodation establishments: San Antonio with 70; San Felipe, 49; Iba, 42; Botolan, 38; San Narciso, 28; Candelaria, 26; and Cabangan, 25.

The ZPTO said more tourism attractions are being developed in response to Gov. Ebdane’s call to identify more local tourism products and services that can compete and provide fresh revenue stream to Zambales. – TAKTIKOM News & Features