"We intend to make the Islands more viable for the business of tourism and more attractive to both domestic and foreign tourists," former Agrarian and Press Secretary Braganza stressed in a news conference where he streamlined his administration’s social and economic agenda for the next three years.
Visits to the Hundred Islands dwindled over the past 10 years after the PTA took over management of the tourism facility from the provincial government of Pangasinan.
Braganza said he has asked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to help facilitate the negotiations and extend to the city government a modest financial outlay to restore the magnificence of the Islands.
Three years ago, the facility was delisted from the tourism road map as a major destination point of the country. As a result, the local hotel and restaurant business, including tourism-related enterprises, reeled and employment dropped.
It may be recalled that then Rep. Braganza launched "One Pangasinan," a tourism-based crusade aimed specifically at improving and promoting the Hundred Islands as a world-class theme park.
Except for the "Governor’s Island," the rest of the island-group have no electricity and potable water facilities.
"Our vision is to put up a "Bangka sa Isla" which will be equipped with solarpowered lights and capable of loading up to two hundred tourists," the mayor said.
"The PTA management might as well agree to our proposal since the islands-resort has been underdeveloped," Braganza said.
A comprehensive tourism development plan, according to him, is now being finalized by a tourism and environment team of specialists from the University of the Philippines.
The mayor is also mulling over a plan to construct an airstrip near the city’s tourism belt which is expected to attract local and foreign tourists.
Many Taiwanese who frolic among the sand dunes of Ilocos Norte and play in the casino at the Fort Ilocandia Resort in Laoag City, have expressed dismay over the absence of an airport of international standards in Pangasinan.
The province, Braganza pointed out, boasts of other tourism facilities such as the hot springs of Balungao (eastern side) and Manleluag in Mangatarem (western side), the hidden caves of Bolinao and the long stretch of fine beaches in San Fabian along the Lingayen Gulf.
