84 Sarah Webb
Palawan^2 have subsequently recovered, and the region has been reaffirmed as
the “Ecotourism capital of the Philippines” through government promotion and
business branding (see Rasch 2014). However, the targeted levels of international
tourist arrivals have yet to be achieved; since the 1990s visitors to key locales on
central Palawan Island (such as the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National
Park) have been predominantly domestic tourists (Table 6.1).
The PPUR is located in the PPSRNP on central Palawan Island. The Park
(as it is referred to locally) is within the jurisdiction of Puerto Princesa City but
is a 2-hour drive from the “downtown” of the capital city (where the airport,
government offices, and much of the City’s infrastructure are located; Figure
6.1). Downtown “Puerto” and the Park’s ecotourism hub of Sabang are now
connected by a concrete road, but certain tourists nostalgically recall a time
when an unpaved road from Puerto reached only partway across central Palawan
Island, and the remainder of the journey to Sabang was undertaken by hiking
or boat (see Broad and Cavanagh 2001, pp. 40–3). On Palawan Island, the
relatively high level of forest cover has made the island’s tropical rainforests
iconic throughout the Philippines. However, the idea that traversing Palawan’s
forested landscape might constitute a pleasurable leisure activity is a relatively
recent one. Palawan was once considered a remote and undesirable destination
within the Philippines (a reputation due in part to the region’s endemic malaria,
hosting of a leper colony, and history of piracy). The region became dramatically
reimagined and transformed before becoming a popular tourism site: first, as a
land and resource frontier; then, as the site of significant logging concessions;
and, finally, as a hub for civil society and environmental movements (Eder and
Fernandez 1996; Broad and Cavanagh 2001, pp. 39–55). During the 1990s, key
events resulting from these movements (the UNESCO designation of Palawan as
Table 6.1 Registered domestic and foreign visitors to the PPSRNP, compiled and
substantiated from PAMB 1999; PPSRNP Registered Park Visitors (published at local
office, 2008); Goodwin 2002; Dressler 2011; Seiler 2014.
Historical overview
Year Domestic visitors Foreign visitors
1985 392 40.2% 583 59.8%
1995 12809 73.9% 4518 26.1%
2005 26920 78.8% 7222 21.2%
From the commencement of the N7WN competition
2007 49185 77.74% 14086 22.26%
2008 76065 81.42% 17363 18.58%
2009 122501 84.94% 21718 15.06%
2010 148760 86.1% 24067 13.9%
2011 197773 83.8% 38097 16.2%
2012 248468 84.3% 46112 15.7%