Panagbenga Festival Earns PhP15 Billion

Panagbenga, Baguio City’s flower festival, proved to be the country’s most lucrative, tourist attraction.

After being able to usher in at least 4 million visitors, the government-backed, community-led festival which was also shown worldwide through live streaming, could be worth at least PhP15 billion, organisers said.

The Baguio Flower Festival Foundation Inc. said the biggest earners of this year’s staging of the festival were the cutflower farmers in nearby La Trinidad, Benguet, hotels, inns, transient houses, restaurants, food stalls within Burnham Park and Session Road as well as souvenir and handicraft shops, groceries and supermarkets, malls, public utility vehicles, newspaper vendors and street vendors.

Organisers said the biggest influx of foreign and domestic visitors to the city was during the staging of the Grand Street Dance and Grand Float Parades on 22nd to 23rd February 2014, respectively. Around 2.5 million visitors and a million local residents trooped to the parade route to witness the performances of participating contingents to the street dance parade and the colourful flower-decorated floats.