Tourist Attraction in the CALABARZON Region, Philippines: Basis for Strategic Planning

The study determined the prospects of developing a strategic planning framework of the tourism business in the CALABARZON region as basis for designing a development plan. The study analyzed the realities of the tourism attraction businesses in the CALABARZON Region in quantitative and qualitative terms. It used research triangulation approach through survey, interview and documentary analysis to gather the data and information needed for the study. Results revealed that tourism industry at the Southern Tagalog Region in the Philippines is stable in terms of types of tourist attractions, trends of tourist arrivals, business linkages, and services offered. The chances of the tourism attraction business operators to maintain their position in the industry is high due to their prudent use of eight marketing mix constructs such as place, product, price, promotion, programming, partnership among others. This study also found out that the problems in the operation of the tourism business are similar with those in other businesses as they all center on employees and management. Likewise, this study showed that the prospect for development of the tourism attraction business is high since people’s love for travel and tours remains a part of their psyche.