Extra-preparations that come with the ongoing new Bohol airport construction are necessary to meet both the unforeseen future demands of development, according to Gov. Edgar Chatto.
Certain important changes of the scope of the airport works are pursued now instead of having them done only by the time when they shall have already been in place.
Chatto said the needed variations address present essential concerns and in anticipation of any sudden dramatic increases in the volumes of flights, passengers and goods.
The readiness, which includes an additional 500-meter stretch for a total 2.5-kilometer runway length, can move back the airport construction’s completion to the first quarter of 2018.
However, the new finishing target, which the governor calls a “catch-up†schedule likely in March of 2018, is still well within the year time-frame when the modern airport shall be operational.
Chatto has exerted coordination effort with the different agencies in the execution of the project, which construction in Panglao goes full swing.
The governor again cited the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) assistance to the then long-fancied project, which is implemented by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).
The DOTC approved the important change of work as in the case of its approval of the awarding of the project and its contract.
Chatto updated the Boholanos about the airport project through a phonepatch interview from Manila as heard live during his weekly media forum, the Kita ug Ang Gobernador, on Friday.
He attended on the same day the special meeting of the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP), of which he is the national secretary-general, at the Century Park Hotel and the Bohol-participated 27th Philippine Travel Mart at the SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia in Pasay City.
Tourists and other travelers to Bohol are expected to triple in number annually once the Panglao airport will have operated, according to an industry projection.
The Department of Tourism (DOT) partially recorded some 2.5 million tourists in Central Visayas in the first six months this year.
The region’s tourist arrival posted a 4.16% increase, although the figure still included the Negros Oriental number even if the province now belongs to the new Negros Island Region (NIR).
Perennial tourism industry leader Cebu had 1.8 million arrivals; Bohol, 322,243; and Siquijor, 48,410. Negros Oriental had 345,308 tourists.
A Cebu report quoting the DOT-7 said the Koreans still outnumbered the rest of the foreign tourists in the region, followed by the Japanese, Chinese, Americans and Australians to complete the top five source markets.
The top four all registered increases unlike the Australians whose arrival number dropped.
Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada and Taiwan are among the region’s top ten tourist sources, but arrivals from these countries to Central Visayas also declined in the first half of 2016.
AIRPORT TOPS BOHOL
CONSTRUCTION BOOM
The Panglao airport work is considered the biggest funded singular piece of infrastructure construction—-either government- or private-initiated—in Bohol to date.
In 2015, Bohol joined the country’s top 10 provinces in the volume of construction activities, according to the Philippine Statistical Authority (PSA).
Bohol placed seventh with 4,651 construction projects and Cebu at sixth with 4,772, registering almost identical growth rates of 3.5% and 3.6%, respectively.
Most (77%) of the constructions involved residential houses and the rest engaging non-residential, additional, and alteration and repair projects, according to a Cebu report.
Along with Cebu, Bohol hugely contributed to having Region 7 logged the most number of construction works in the entire Visayas.
This indicates the province’s construction industry boom and economic gains, which the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) also validated in its growth index evaluation for Bohol under Chatto. (Ven rebo Arigo)