This town known for pink sand beaches takes pride in the opening of the first luxury resort in the Eastern Visayas region.
The Sila Island Resort in this town will open its door to tourists and visitors wanting to experience a quality vacation in a luxury destination.
“You can position Northern Samar, like some places such as Sila Island, as a destination for the high-end market,” Department of Tourism (DOT) Eastern Visayas regional director Karina Rosa Tiopes said on Tuesday.
“Mass tourism is okay but having a responsible tourism development by attracting fewer guests but high spending will generate the same benefit to communities,” she added.
The management is eyeing to open the resort within the month.
The DOT officials and tour and travel operators from Leyte and Northern Samar provinces visited the resort over the weekend as part of the promotion for the reopening of the province to regional tourists.
The resort, which is two-hour travel away from San Isidro port, has villas using contemporary Filipino architecture and cutting edge design using locally sourced materials such as bamboo and rattan.
Each villa has wide opened doors that allow visitors to capture and appreciate the beautiful scenery of the turquoise-colored seawater and lush mountain from the nearby island.
The foreign-owned resort also offers dishes from various types of local cuisines mixed with imported spices and ingredients.
Guests will also have their own butler to assist them while they are staying on the island.
Due to the current coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, the management also requires guests to have a negative Covid-19 test result released within 72-hours before entering the resort as mitigating measures to prevent the spread of infection.
They also require guests to follow the minimum health protocols such as wearing of face masks, hand sanitizing, and regular body temperature checks.
The management also conducts regular testing among its personnel.
“We really need places such as this to offer to the high-end market and this is really a welcome development for us. We now have a Sila Island Resort in San Vicente, and I hope that this will not be the only development here,” Tiopes said.
She added that with a high-end resort operating in Northern Samar, this would attract foreign tourists that would bring in “new money” to the local economy.
“Domestic tourism is really the backbone of Philippine tourism, anywhere you go, 80 to 90 percent of the tourists are Filipinos, but we need foreign tourists because these are the guests who bring the new money,” Tiopes said.
With the tourism industry not only in the country but also in the entire world affected by the current health pandemic, Sila Island Resort hopes that they become an alternative destination for those who love traveling outside the country, the management stated.
Northern Samar is one of the six provinces in Eastern Visayas blessed with natural wonders, however, only a few people are aware of the beautiful sites, according to DOT.
Northern Samar is also one of the three provinces in the region that is part of the cruise tourism industry. (PNA)
