Magayon Wedding Festival – Kasalang Filipino 2009 – Legazpi Leg

From the legend of the pride of the province, Mount Mayon, to the characteristics of the Bicolanos, Albay simply spells love and romance. On April 24 – 25, 2009, Albay invites all soon-to-wed couples to experience a magayon (lovely) wedding

Blessed by Daragang Magayon and Panganoron. A newlywed couple kisses with Daragang Magayon (Mayon Volcano) and her lover Panganoron (the clouds) as witnesses. Photo courtesy of Ariel Javelosa Photography

during the Magayon Wedding Festival to be held at the Peperland Hotel in Legazpi City.

The event is the fifth leg of Kasalang Filipino 2009 12-city wedding fair road show, which is co-presented by Kasal.com and ABS-CBN Regional Network Group in cooperation with Peperland Hotel and Pacific Mall Legazpi.

Kasalang Filipino 2009 is a nationwide wedding fair road show which ties twelve (12) Philippine cities with one goal of promoting the local wedding industry. The following are the 12 cities of the 2009 road show – San Pablo, Tagaytay, Tarlac, Dagupan, Legazpi, Dumaguete, General Santos, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Bacolod, Manila, and Cebu.

Numerous activities have been lined up for attending couples such as talks on wedding planning and wedding trends, floral arrangement demonstration, wedding cake decoration and baking demo by known local pastry chef Renan Yulo, bridal makeup competition made possible by Ever Bilena, and a bridal fashion show featuring the latest collection of Fashion Literacy. Lucky couples will get a chance to win free wedding giveaways, honeymoon packages, and appliance showcases during the bridal fair.

Admission is free. Register online at www.kasal.com to take part in this nationwide bridal road show. For inquiries, contact Pepperland Hotel at (052) 481-4428, 0920-914-2349 or Kasal.com at 415-9249, 414-3596 or email kasal.com@gmail.com, info@kasal.com.

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Kasalang Filipino 2009 is co-presented by Kasal.com and ABS-CBN Regional Network Group and made possible by Max's Restaurant, Ever Bilena Cosmetics,Goldilocks, Hewlett-Packard Philippines, Ariel Javelosa Photography, QP Designs, and the following media partners: Lifestyle Network, Sky Cable, WRR 101.9, My Only Radio, Metro Weddings, Metro Home and Entertaining, Food Magazine, Foodie Magazine, Flavors Magazine, China Business Philippines, The Manila Times, Business Mirror, Philstar.com, Tsinoy.com, and LocalDirect.com.Technology partners are Touch Solutions, Toshiba, Bitstop Network Services, and Too Many Memory.

RP Foreign Visitors at High for 2008

Based on the latest data from the Department of Tourism (DOT), a total of 3.14 million foreign tourists visited the Philippines last year.

The increase is attributed to the increase of tourist arrivals from European countries such as Russia, which rose up to 34%, France by 19%, and United Kingdom by 10%. On the other hand, visitors from United Arab Emirates and Vietnam also increased by 28%.

South Koreans are still the most frequent visitors of the country, with 611,629 arrivals in 2008. Next in line are USA (578,246 arrivals), and Japan (359,205 arrivals).

Chinese and Taiwanese tourist arrival in 2008 expanded to 163, 689 and 118,782, respectively. The DOT worked with Chinese travel agents and airlines to mount new charter flights between Shanghai and Nanning to Cebu, Guangzhou to Clark, and Nanning and Kunming to Manila. In addition, the department worked closely with Mandarin Airlines to increase chartered flights between Taipei to Kalibo, Taipei to Cebu, and Kaoshiung to Cebu.

Other countries that posted significant increase in tourist arrivals are Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, and Indonesia.

Earnings of other tourist-based industries improved with the growth of tourist arrivals. The English as secondary language (ESL) program generated PhP. 180.8 million, with Baguio and Bacolod City garnering the highest profit. Dive shop operators in Cebu and Bohol generated PhP. 8.8 million in gross receipts. The medical tourism industry also had it share of good revenue. DOT-accredited medical tourism facilities in Manila earned PhP. 108.8 million from 1, 071 foreign patient-tourists who sought medical services here in the country last year.

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BiyahengPinas.com thanks the following sources for this article:

Department of Tourism. Philippine Tourism: Stable Amidst a Global Tourism Downturn (in PDF format) Retrieved February 6, 2009 from
http://www.wowphilippines.com.ph/dot/2008YrEnd.pdf

ABS-CBN News. RP tourism growth takes a hit from global crisis (Posted February 4, 2009) Retrieved February 6, 2009 from
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/02/04/09/growth-foreign-tourist-arrivals-down-15-2008

Inquirer.net (Newswire from Agence France-Presse) Tourist arrivals hit 3.14M in 2008 (Posted February 4, 2009) Retrieved February 6, 2009 from
http://business.inquirer.net/money/topstories/view/20090204-187393/Tourist-arrivals-hit-314M-in-2008

GMA News.tv RP foreign tourist arrivals barely improve in 2008 (Posted February 4, 2009) Retrieved February 6, 2009 from
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/147336/RP-foreign-tourist-arrivals-barely-improve-in-2008

Alave, Kristine L.,Philippine Daily Inquirer. Tourism up; 3.14 million visitors in ’08 (Posted February 5, 2009) Retrieved February 6, 2009 from
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/news/view/20090205-187504/Tourism-up-314-million-visitors-in-08