TOURISM SUB - SECTOR

The Municipality of San Antonio was endowed with numerous natural attractions, which
can be developed for eco tourism purposes. They can enable the municipality to
increase its revenues, create jobs and means of livelihood, contribute to the image and
prestige of the municipality. At the same time, their development into ecological
tourism destination can help conserve the eco – system of the municipality. Said
attractions are as follows:

MT. MABANBAN

The peak of Mt. Mabanban is 1,035 meters above sea level. Although the mountain is
almost completely treeless, its peak has a hidden lake and it offers a spectacular view of
the Zambales landscape. The mountain has an ample supply of precious mineral
reserves such as chromites, jade, and copper.

MT. PUNDAKIT

Mt. Pundakit and Mt. Mabanban are both parts of the same mountain range. Mt.
Pundakit rises only 650 meters from the sea with similar breathtaking view of the
panoramic surroundings. The summit can be reached in three (3) hours. A system of
waterfalls flows at the base of the mountain, which is rapid during rainy days and
virtually stagnant in the summer. Its falls has little pools ideal for children and larger
basins with one feet to about 8 feet depths, which are like swimming pools where one
can dive in. Further towards its peak are twin falls with twenty (20) feet drops towards
the shallow pools.

Trekking at the Mt. Mabanban and Mt. Pundaquit hinterlands to explore forest, caves,
and waterfalls is offered specific schedule at least once a year.

CAPONES ISLAND GROUP

The Capones Island Group is situated approximately 112 kilometers north of Manila,
consists of Capones Island and the Camera Islands. It is located west of Brgy. Pundaquit
and is approximately 2 nautical miles off the coast of Brgy. Pundaquit. It lies 12 nautical
miles from Sampaloc Point, which is the entrance to Subic Bay. Capones Island Grande
has a length of 1.5 miles and is situated 2 miles from the Capones Point.

The Camera Islands are within 2 km offshore while Capones Island is situated 5.2 km
offshore. Capones Island is a single island characterized by two rocky outcroppings on
each side connected by sand flat; approximately 800 meters in length.

Both islands are known for their white beaches dotted with multihued crushed coral,
clear blue waters, soaring rock cliffs and the historical Faro de Punta Capones (Capones
Lighthouse) built in 1890 by the Spanish Colonial Government and whose construction
took five years using Filipino forced labor. It has a very historical significance as it used
guide light ships leaving the Port of Manila with its kerosene powered beacon lamp. The
whole structure has a tower, the main building with eight (8) rooms, and two outhouses,
with two (2) rooms each respectively.

The Capones Island is also the Marine Protected Area (MPA) of the Municipality of San
Antonio.

SILANGUIN BAY

This offers the ideal place for scuba diving, fish sanctuary and beach resort. The area is
rich in marine life, which includes tuna, squid, lapu-lapu, skipjack, talakitok and others.

In addition to its natural attractions for eco tourism, the Municipality of San Antonio
also has a man – made attraction for cultural and arts tourism, which is Casa San Miguel
in Barangay San Miguel.

NAGSASA COVE

The cove has a breath taking scenery with its clear waters and rolling hills, which
make it picture perfect. It offers a 45.56 km. kayak/canoe ride, which has a total
ascent of 93.0 m. and has a maximum elevation of 82.0 m.

CASA SAN MIGUEL - is a chamber of music. It is set amidst a mango orchard nestled
between the mountain and the sea. It is a privately funded non-profit organization
organized and staffed voluntarily by a concerned group of family and friends. The
Pundakit Festival of the Arts is an annual seven (7) month season celebrating the many
facets of arts and culture. Each season features artists of different nationalities working
on a diverse range of themes in concerts, performances and exhibits. It also has other
available programs for artists and aspiring artists as follows:

a. Residency Program
The program offers short and long term residencies to encourage artists of all
disciplines to extend beyond the immediate impression of concerts, exhibits or
performances.
b. Special Events
Casa San Miguel organizes special events during the festival month, which
include outdoor fairs, dances, special concerts, exhibits and other performances.
This is a channel to increase community awareness on pressing environment
issues concerned.

Figure 1 and Table 1 below show the tourist arrivals in the Municipality for its various
offerings. The data, however, has a number of limitations. First, since it was only started
in the middle of 2011, it is difficult to try and establish a trend.
As can be seen in both the figure and the table, there was a big jump in tourist arrivals
from 2011 to 2012 in the months February to May. While said data cannot be seen as a
trend, the difference cannot be ignored. Concluding that the popularity of San Antonio
as a tourist destination for the summer months is not being overly optimistic. Based also
on the data, the arrivals for the months of June to November of 2013 dropped
significantly and were even lower than those of 2011. A possible explanation for the
drop from August to November of 2013 is that the calamities may have created an
avoidance of travel. No serious attempt on systematically correlating the data with what
was happening at the tourist spots of San Antonio at those times.

Figure 1: Tourist Arrivals, San Antonio, Zambales: 2011 - 2013

Tourist Arrivals, San Antonio, Zambales: 2011 - 2013

50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
0

2011 2012 2013

Table 1: Tourist Arrivals, San Antonio, Zambales: 2011 - 2013

2011 2012 2013

January 6,160 3,769
february 6,261 12,269
March 8,192 47,429
April 9,336 26,342
May 9,537 25,142
June 5,555 4,338
July 2,409 1,420
August 2,810 2,476 1,325
September 2,031 809 2,038
October 2,143 4,094 1,255
November 5,480 9,260 1,640
December 7,049 10,520
Total 19,513 74,609 126,967
While the Municipality of San Antonio clearly has a strong tourism potential, it lacks a
strategic design, which is necessary for it to become a municipal industry and be able to
effectively compete with other tourism destinations. Due to the lack of strategic design,
it has the following Development Issues and Concerns:

1. It is unaware of the specific market segments, which have been patronizing its
attractions and has not undertaken quantitative or qualitative research on the
sources of satisfaction and improvement needs. Neither has it taken advantage
of the qualitative reviews of Netizens, who have patronized its attractions, in
the development of an institutional knowledge base.
2. It has a very broad range of resorts and facilities, which make effective
municipal institutional marketing expensive and difficult, as it will have to
appeal to a wide range of segments. Furthermore, some of the high-end
facilities are already showing decay most probably due to the attempts to
reduce maintenance costs.
3. During the lean months, the general strategy adopted by the resorts was
“Contract rather than Attract”. The general strategy employed was reducing
operating costs such as reduction of manpower etc. While said strategy is
understandable, there were no attempts at creating incentives such as
reduction in prices and other promotions, which can attract potential tourists
from nearby areas who do not require much planning to take a trip to San
Antonio.
4. Other than public image, the over - all benefits of tourism to the municipality
are unclear. The municipality does not have a knowledge base on the benefits
of tourism to employment, commerce, agriculture and management of the eco
system as well as the costs it pays for those benefits. While fiscal revenues in
the form of RPT and business taxes are in the data bases of the municipality, no
study on their specific contribution and their trends have been undertaken.
Thus, should the municipality decide to make public investments for tourism, it
will not be clear as to which benefits said public investments will maximize.
Neither will it be based on new benefits said investments will create.
5. The municipality does not have institutional knowledge of its competitive
positioning and competitive advantage over other LGUs aspiring to be or are
currently tourist destinations.
6. It has not explored institutional collaboration with SBMA for tourism on its co –
managed lands.
7. Gathering data is very limited and not backed up by a comprehensive and
systematic research design. No other data such as length of stay, group size,
first time visitor or repeat visitor and the means of transportation were
collected. There were also no attempts at gathering quantitative and/or
qualitative data on customer satisfaction. At the same time, the data does not
indicate which of its attractions were visited. Even if the attractions are close to
each other, it is not safe to assume that the tourists visited all of them.
8. The municipality has not optimized the social capital that it can generate from
partnerships between the municipal government and the tourism stakeholders
such as the San Antonio Resort Owner’s Association, fishing communities at
Bgy. Pundaquit etc.
9. Key point persons for tourism in the municipal government structure have
been, at most, part time and efforts at developing a strategic design for San
Antonio do not have continuity. The roles that the personnel of the municipal
government involved in tourism have also not been defined.
10. It has not formulated its strategic positioning as a tourist destination.