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About bohol.

Located at the heart of Central Visayas, the Island province of Bohol is the 10th largest island in the Philippines with a total land area of 4,117.3 square kilometres. It is composed of an oval-shaped mainland surrounded by 72 smaller islands.

A popular tourist destination, the province is abundant of beaches and resorts. Its well-known beaches are found in Panglao Island, which is situated south-west of the province, and in Anda, located on the island’s east side. Bohol is composed of 1 city and 47 municipalities.

Tagbilaran City, the capital of Bohol, is known as the “City of Friendship.” Situated in the south-western part of the province, it has a total land area of 32.70 km2 (12.63 sq mi) and a coastline of 13 km (8.1 mi). The city shares its boundaries with the municipalities of Cortes, Corella, and Baclayon. It is 630 km (390 mi) southeast of the national capital of Manila and 72 km (45 mi) south of the regional capital, Cebu City.

Tagbilaran City’s name is derived from “Tagu Bilaan” which means TAGU (to hide) and BILAAN (a Muslim marauder tribe) – hence its name means to hide from Muslim marauders.

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Alicia Ultra 2023

Apr 14, 2023

The ALICIA ULTRA this coming April 16, 2023 is scheduled to be Bohol Island’s first trail ultramarathon. The race will be held in the beautiful town of Alicia. The trail course is set over the luscious green rolling hills of the...

Bohol Loop Dive Expo 2023

Apr 13, 2023

Over a hundred individuals who are passionate about underwater photography, diving, and instructing are scheduled to gather in Bohol from April 13 to April 30 for the inaugural Bohol Loop Dive Expo, also known as BHOLDEX 2023,...

Visita Iglesia de Bohol

Apr 4, 2023

Your pilgrimage to 7 Bohol Churches not only during lent but-all-year round.St. Joseph the Worker Cathedral (Tagbilaran City) The Cathedral of St. Joseph the Worker is the main seat of the Catholic faith in Bohol, with the...

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Now it’s time to make your Bohol vacation a reality! Perfect! To get you started, we’ve compiled everything you need for an unforgettable trip. Here you’ll find everything from money matters, health & wellness, happy stories, where to shop, prayer time, moving around, T.A.R.S.I.E.R and additional info. We’ve figured everything out, so you don’t have to!

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ITB Berlin 2024

Mar 5, 2024

​Last year, UNESCO conferred upon our dear island the honor of being included in its Global Geopark Network, making it the first destination ever to receive this distinction in the entire Philippines. This marked the culmination...

7TH PFTC 2024

Feb 26, 2024

The country’s farm tourism sector has made a strong comeback with the hosting of the 7th Philippine Farm Tourism Conference on the scenic Panglao Island in Bohol. Organized by the International School of Sustainable Tourism...

PHIDEX 2024

Feb 23, 2024

Bohol joins PHIDEX 2024 DIVE7 DOT Central Visayas actively participated in PHIDEX 2024, the Philippines' premier diving exposition held at the World Trade Center Manila from February 23–25, 2024. Themed 'Heart of Asia's Diving:...

Take only memories, leave only footprints – Chief Seattle

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Now it’s time to make your Bohol vacation a reality! Perfect! To get you started, we’ve compiled everything you need for an unforgettable trip. Here you’ll find everything from money matters, health & wellness, happy stories, where to shop, prayer time, moving around, T.A.R.S.I.E.R and others. We’ve figured everything out, so you don’t have to!

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Perspective-changing eastern visayas tours to take note of, 6 heritage sites and what they can offer to the adventurous, nature adventures await in beautiful bataan, 9 must-try activities in catanduanes – ph’s happiest island, camiguin and misamis oriental’s natural and historic wonders, 7 budget-friendly resorts in quezon, capisaan cave is a spelunking paradise, 3 reasons why marinduque is your next travel destination, escape to these 7 scenic secluded beaches in the philippines, a bicol and central visayas travel bucket list for cyclists, underrated destinations in western visayas: a discovery list, this café in zamboanga city serves authentic sulu coffee, explore from scenic beaches and landscapes to gastronomic feasts, let these articles take you there.

Sights Watch and see picture perfect spots to view and visit

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Contributors celebrated travelers, artists, and thought leaders share their amazing journeys, if you get there before i do.

Joyce Roque is a Palanca-award winning writer and lecturer based in Manila. Before the pandemic, she loved to travel all over the Philippines with Batanes, Bohol and Sicogon Islands being some of her favorite destinations.

Why Mindanao Should Be on Your Travel List

M.J. Cagumbay Tumamac (Xi Zuq) is a recipient of the PBBY Salanga Writers Prize in 2013, the National Children’s Book Award in 2014 and 2016, and the Makata ng Taon award from the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino in 2019.

Edgar Calabia Samar is a Palanca, NCCA Writer's Prize, and National Book Awards winning poet and novelist from San Pablo City, Philippines.

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Lack of Chinese visitors hinders Philippines tourism growth

Tuesday, 16 Apr 2024

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Pedestrians in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City, Metro Manila, the Philippines, on Saturday, April 6, 2024. The Philippines trimmed its economic growth forecasts for this year and next amid stubborn inflation and elevated interest rates, while widening its fiscal deficit estimates to support higher spending. Photographer: Veejay Villafranca/Bloomberg

MANILA: The slow return of Chinese tourists has been holding back travel recovery in the Philippines, the Bank of America (BofA) says in a report that highlights the “uneven” recovery in Asia tourism.

As the region’s tourism sector enters the last leg of recovery from the pandemic’s onslaught, BofA said the Philippines, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan were the “laggards” in Asia as tourist arrivals in these destinations have yet to reach pre-pandemic levels.

In the Philippines, BofA noted that foreign visitor arrivals were still 76% of pre-pandemic levels as of February this year, albeit much better than Hong Kong’s 73.7% and Taiwan’s January 2024 figure of 69.6%.

Among the laggards, BofA said China was an “outlier” after it reopened its economy much later than other Asian destinations. Data compiled by the bank showed foreign tourist arrivals in China were 36.3% below pre-pandemic level as of December 2023.

In turn, the later reopening of China’s economy weighed on tourism recovery in countries that heavily depended on Chinese holidaymakers, such as the Philippines and Hong Kong.

Data compiled by BofA showed Chinese arrivals are only tracking at 20% to 30% of pre-pandemic levels in the Philippines, below trends elsewhere in the region. And the recovery is unlikely to speed up anytime soon, with BofA noting the “changing preferences” of Chinese consumers.

“The typical Chinese traveller these days is increasingly interested in exploring domestic cities that offer unique cultural experiences. This has also slowed their return to international destinations,” BofA said.

“The return of Chinese travellers might be a gradual process,” it added.

On the flip side, tourism is now back to pre-pandemic vigor in Japan and Vietnam as they benefitted from the weakness of their currencies.

BofA said Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand were among the “hopefuls” in Asia after seeing a sharp rebound in international arrivals in recent months.

Meanwhile, India, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia were in the “middle of the pack” whose visitor entries are tracking at 80% to 85% of pre-pandemic levels so far.

For this year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) forecasts tourism receipts – a source of US dollars for the economy – to grow by 50%.

That would contribute to the projected US$700mil surplus in 2024 which, if realised, would be smaller than the US$3.7bil windfall recorded in 2023.

Moving forward, BofA said Asian economies with falling currencies would continue to attract more foreign visitors that are looking for cheap holiday destinations.

“Foreign exchange colleagues expect currencies in Asia to strengthen across the board against the US dollar over the next two years but remain weak by historical standards,” BSP said. — The Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN

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Meet The Billionaire Betting Big On An Idyllic Island Retreat In The Philippines

Inside andrew tan's $720 million eco-tourism project in the country’s pristine beachside paradise., by jonathan burgos , forbes staff.

T he pitch is for tropical paradise: turquoise waters that lap a pristine shoreline fringed by lush, mist-streaked greenery. Philippine property giant Megaworld extolls on its Facebook page the virtues of Palawan island, the largest of a 1,780-island group by the same name that hangs to the left of the island nation in the Pacific. Here, Megaworld is pursuing its most complex project yet, a resort and residential estate that will be the island’s biggest real estate development to date.

On 462 hectares in San Vicente, a quiet, relatively untouched corner of Palawan’s northern coast, known for its rich biodiversity, virgin forests, steep karst cliffs and the longest white sand beach in the Philippines, Megaworld has a 15-year plan to raise a township from among the coconut trees—an ecofriendly addition, it says, to its hospitality, office, retail and residential portfolio that spans the country. When finished, Paragua Coastown will include two 10-story hotels, a residential condominium, villas, a hospital, a school, and wellness-related centers.

Megaworld, owned by billionaire Andrew Tan ’s spirits-to-property conglomerate Alliance Global Group, is pouring over 40 billion pesos ($720 million) into the venture—a tenth of what it plans to spend on building townships across the Philippines in the next five years. The company is banking on getting in on the ground floor as the island remakes itself into one of the country’s top tourist destinations. Some 1.5 million people, of which about 650,000 were overseas travelers, visited the island in 2023, nearly twice as many as the previous year, according to government figures, as tourists return to the Philippines post-Covid. (Boracay, the archipelago’s most popular resort island, had over 2 million visitors last year.) “We intend to showcase the best sustainable tourism and green living concepts by developing it into an ecotourism township,” Kevin Tan, Andrew’s eldest son and Megaworld’s executive vice president and chief strategy officer, says by email.

Andrew Tan (left), chairman of spirits-to-property conglomerate Alliance Global and his eldest son, Kevin Tan, CEO of Alliance Global.

San Vicente is seen as the next frontier in the island’s commercial boom, catching up to Palawan’s other island centers where tourism is flourishing, including its capital, Puerto Princesa City (home to the 8.2-kilometer underground river, a Unesco World Heritage site), and El Nido, a municipality comprised of small islands at Palawan’s northern tip that has in recent years become a playground for backpackers and jetsetters alike. Ayala Land, controlled by billionaire Jaime Zobel de Ayala and his family, has already made inroads as El Nido’s biggest developer, owning the 325-hectare Lio tourism estate along with four other resorts in the town’s smaller islands.

Megaworld broke ground last year on its 306-room Savoy Hotel Palawan and the nearby 189-unit Oceanfront Premier Residences tower, which are both slated to be completed in 2028. Construction of the 313-room Paragua Sands Hotel, which will open in 2029, has yet to start.

Most rooms will have water views, and the hiking trails of the Pagdanan mountain range, home to threatened wildlife such as the Philippine cockatoo, gray imperial pigeon and blue-naped parrot, are a short drive away.

Megaworld is building Paragua Coastown (left) along the coconut tree-lined (right) coastline of San Vicente, Palawan island in the Philippines.

“More than just sustainable tourism, our vision for Paragua Coastown is to be able to provide an opportunity to those who want to live the island life within a lush and sustainable landscape,” Tan says. To that end, he says Megaworld will incorporate solar and other renewable energy sources into its building design. There will be a waste-to-energy plant to supply electricity to the township as part of a new waste-management system and sewage-treatment center.

About 40% of Paragua Coastown’s land area has been earmarked for open (albeit landscaped) spaces, while a mangrove forest reserve in its boundaries will be left untouched. Megaworld also plans to plant thousands of trees on 100 hectares deforested by commercial logging, once a mainstay of the local economy, and upgrade the mostly dirt tracks used by San Vicente's 30,000 residents to a network of roads in and around the property.

Ana Margarita Lustre-Malijan, vice president at local hotelier and construction firmArlustre Group, believes such developments will be a huge boon for Palawan, bringing jobs and income to the island where about 15% of the population falls below the poverty line. It could also be the tipping point to improve accessibility to the area. There’s an airport in San Vicente, but Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific, two of the nation’s main airlines, don’t fly there. Getting to San Vicente means a 90-minute flight from Manila or Cebu to Puerto Princesa and a bumpy four-hour car ride across rugged terrain. Cebu Pacific CEO Michael Szucs tells Forbes Asia that the airline will consider flying to San Vicente once the Megaworld hotels are built.

Tourists visiting the Puerto Princesa underground river (top left), a Unesco World Heritage site, while a wild pig roams Coconut Beach in San Vicente. View of San Vicente's famed stretch of white-sand beach (right).

Besides attracting homegrown developers, Palawan has become a stopping point for international hospitality brands. “Palawan stands out as an attractive destination, blending cultural richness with natural landscapes,” Raj Menon, Marriott’s president for Asia Pacific excluding China, says by email. The U.S. group will add over 70 rooms this year to its recently opened 168-room Four Points by Sheraton on Sabang Beach, near Puerto Princesa’s underground river, to meet demand. American hotel chains Best Western and Wyndham Hotels’ Microtel have also established a presence on the island.

Megaworld has begun marketing the Paragua Coastown residential units, which will range from 32-square-meter studios to 106-square-meter two-bedroom suites, and expects them to generate some 2.3 billion pesos in sales. Doubling down on Palawan, Megaworld announced in December it would spend another 7 billion pesos to develop a mixed-use complex on a 6-hectare oceanfront site in Puerto Princesa. Named Baytown Palawan, the commercial, hotel and residential project is expected to take five years to complete. “Palawan has always been a hotspot for local and international tourists,” Tan says.

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International visitors to the Philippines have gradually returned but remain below pre-pandemic levels.

Palawan isn’t the Tans’ only tourism play. They are building resorts, retail space and convention facilities across the archipelago, including tourist hotspots Boracay, Cebu and Davao. Megaworld’s hospitality operations accounted for over 5% of the company’s 2023 revenue of 69.7 billion pesos, and the company expects the business will make up at least 10% of revenue by 2028.

Andrew Tan launched Megaworld in the late 1980s, pioneering the living concept of a city within a city in the Philippines. It now counts 24 townships (with an additional seven under construction) nationwide, part of his sprawling business empire under Alliance Global comprising a controlling interest in Emperador, owner of the Dalmore whisky and Fundador brandy brands, and a stake in the Philippine franchisee of McDonalds. Tan ranked No. 11 on the Philippines’ 50 Richest 2023 list with $2.4 billion net worth.

“Expanding our townships all over the Philippines will sustain our growth as a company and allow us to also diversify our offering in the real estate industry,” says son Kevin, who is also vice chairman and CEO of Alliance Global. “Through these developments, we can make a significant impact across economic sectors.”

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