By Joseph L. Garcia

IT’S NOT JUST Coron, anymore, folks — five new “rising stars” among diving spots were pinpointed by the Department of Tourism (DoT).

The department made the announcement at the press conference ahead of the recently concluded Diving Resort Travel (DRT) Expo-Philippines which ran from Sept. 11 to 13 at the SM Megatrade Hall.

The new diving stars being promoted by the Tourism department are Romblon, Southern Leyte, Ticao Island, Siargao, and Sarangani.

Zeny Pallugna, former head of the Dive — Market Development Group under the DoT, discussed why these sites were picked for promotion. “We always hear about… Coron, and we also want to develop the tourism industry in these areas, and we also want to encourage people to check out [these spots],” she said.

Romblon hosts a species of fish that cannot be seen anywhere else, said Ms. Pallugna. She extolled the virtues of some of the new spots, citing a manta ray bowl in Ticao. “It’s also popular for macro photography,” she said. Ticao is also a home chosen by Mandarin fish, a small fish with a fantastic tail.

“We’re [also] really pushing Southern Leyte, because that’s part of our tourism plan to revive the destination, because it was affected… by the typhoon [Yolanda],” she said, noting that dolphins can be found in the region.

“We considered [the new sites] in terms of accessibility [and] availability of dive centers and dive shops in the area, and in terms also of the richness of marine life,” she said.

“We have been doing a lot of promotions internationally for diving, because diving is our core product for Philippine tourism,” she said. “We are recognized as one of the top ten dive destinations in the world.”

She pointed out that visitors from Europe, Canada and the US come to the Philippines just to dive. “We just recently opened [to] China, Japan — Japan[ese divers have] been coming here also… we wanted to compete also with other Asian countries.”

Currently, the country’s diving sites are being promoted to serve two segments: underwater photographers and diving beginners. “We want to compete with Indonesia, Malaysia, [and] Thailand, and we want to promote the Philippines as an underwater photography destination,” she said. “At the same time, we want to position the Philippines as a div[ing] beginners’ destination.

“We are getting a lot of Chinese [tourists] coming to the Philippines, and they want to learn diving,” she added.

There are “almost 400” dive resorts in the country, she pointed out. “The industry is really growing, because, for example, the resorts are increasing their number of rooms, [and] a lot of foreigners are investing now,” she said.

Diving seems to be the gift that keeps on giving, as developing the industry encourages locals to take care of the environment, with Ms. Pallugna noting a decrease in dynamite fishing, “because of the diving industry”.

“We don’t fish; we don’t get anything from there,” she said. “We just take photos.”

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