CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Tourism in Northern Mindanao Region bounced back by 177 percent last year following the easing of restrictions from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) protocols, an official said on April 28, 2023

Mylah Faye Aurora Cariño, the region’s National Economic Development Authority (NEDA-10) director, said the exceptional achievement can be attributed to “revenge travels” or the return of travelers’ influx to the region.

“The region’s annual tourist arrivals, domestic and foreign, in 2022 increased by 177% to 1.66 million from 599,000 in 2021,” Cariño said in a statement.

Cariño said the continued easing of pandemic-related mobility restrictions also led to increased demand for travel and tourism-related services in the region.

She described the expansion of Northern Mindanao’s economy last year as a sign of the region’s “further recovery from the pandemic and its resilience amid external headwinds.”

The Philippine Statistics Authority-10, meanwhile, also recorded Northern Mindanao’s services sector with a growth of 10.1 percent in 2022, describing it as a signal of the region’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. (Nef Luczon/PNA)