Tourists can look forward to shorter travel time to Banaue – DOT

Come May, the usual six- to eight-hour trip to Banaue might be down to four hours, thanks to new flights from Clark International Airport to Bagabag Airport, Nueva Vizcaya.

The flight to Bagabag Airport will take an hour and within another hour, tourists will be able to see the Banaue Rice Terraces.

This tourist destination was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. The Banaue Tourism Office recorded 64,355 visits to the spot in 2016.

The air connectivity between Pampanga and Nueva Vizcaya was launched at the Internationale Tourismus Borse (ITB), a tourism trade fair in Berlin, Germany.

“There’s no better occasion to launch a new air route than in the world’s grandest tourism trade fair. This will complement the activities we are promoting in the European market, particularly for travelers who seek cultural immersion in the Philippines,” Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon Tulfo-Teo said in a press statement.

Department of Tourism (DOT) Director for the Cordillera Administrative Region Marie Venus Tan was credited as a the lead negotiator for the Wakay Air Services flights to Nueva Vizcaya.

Flights will be on offer starting May this year, at a scheduled four flights a week on board a 38-seater Dornier plane. — Aya Tantiangco/BM, GMA News