Jewels in ‘The Most Beautiful Island in the World’
The mention of Palawan immediately evokes the best of nature—majestic beaches, lush forests, and world-famous caves with underground treasures.
But besides its tourist gems, the island has also gained renown for consistently ranking among the Philippines’ cleanest, greenest, and most livable provinces.
Let’s take a look at some of its top destinations—Puerto Princesa and San Vicente—and discover how they contribute to Palawan’s reputation as a thriving hub for tourism, business, and investment.
Puerto Princesa City
Located 306 nautical miles from Manila or 55 minutes by commercial plane is the city of Puerto Princesa, the capital and largest city of the province of Palawan.
In 2007, it was converted into a highly urbanized city, cementing its place as a premium destination for travel and business. As such, the local government has been proactively taking steps to activate the city’s promising economic potential.
Known for its thriving tourism industry and untapped natural resources, the city is also among the greenest cities in the Philippines, spanning 2,381 sq km of land pockmarked by rainforests, historical sites and white sand beaches.
It contributes to the numerous honors and awards that the province of Palawan has gotten over the years, as the city is home to famous destinations such as the Crocodile Farm and Nature Park, Butterfly Garden, and the iconic Underground River, which is a Unesco World Heritage Site and a New Seven Wonders of the Nature awardee. In 2023, Puerto Princesa alone saw some 529,000 tourist arrivals, up 76 percent from the 300,000 arrivals recorded in 2022.
More than being a tropical paradise however, Puerto Princesa is also the province’s main hub of commerce, transportation, education, and real estate.
According to the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines, Puerto Princesa was recognized as a high-potential area that can transform into a digital city by 2025. In December 2023, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) meanwhile said it was targeting to open a 26,000-ha Iwahig mega economic zone at the prison complex in Puerto Princesa within the term of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Given the projects and plans on the pipeline, the city government is continuously improving its infrastructure to stimulate economic development. Plans are underway to revitalize the central business district by constructing new commercial buildings to attract more investments.
In October 2022, the city government said it was eyeing some P300 billion worth of new investments for the city, including a new safari park. The bulk, or some P200 billion, is expected to come from Sta. Lucia Environmental Estate, which is being positioned as an ecotourism park and a major environmental hub.
There are also plans to upgrade the city’s fishport, which is expected to generate thousands of new jobs.
As a testament to its potential, the city posted a double-digit growth in its gross domestic product (GDP) to 10.6 percent in 2023. This made Puerto Princesa the second fastest growing city in Luzon.
San Vicente town
Another hotspot is San Vicente, home to the longest white sand beach in the country and the second longest beach in Southeast Asia.
The municipality of San Vicente is located some 186 km away from Puerto Princesa City, and has a population of 33,507, according to the latest census. It lies on the west coast of Palawan and is bounded by the municipality of Taytay in the north and the municipality of Roxas in the east.
San Vicente is the Tourism and Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority’s (TIEZA) first flagship tourism enterprise zone, envisioned to be an environmentally and socially sustainable integrated investor’s haven.
In total, San Vicente’s land area spans 1,462.94 sq km. TIEZA’s tourism masterplan for San Vicente includes, among other things, transforming the tourism enterprise zone into one of the leading destinations in the country.
Other assets in San Vicente offer a variety of attractions and features that make it an auspicious investment and an exciting tourist destination.
If Boracay’s White Beach has a 4-km stretch of the world’s finest, whitest sand, San Vicente’s Long Beach has more than thrice of that. Its unspoiled, pristine beach spans more than 14 km, with nothing but endless rows of lush forests, coconut trees, and the West Philippine Sea surrounding it.
San Vicente also has potential for agri-tourism and eco-tourism due to its vast agricultural lands and protected areas such as mangrove forests and coral reefs.
Plans to make San Vicente’s long beach accessible to the public are also part of TIEZA’s masterplan. Access roads along the whole stretch of the beach have been proposed and recommended to be at every 400 meters—a comfortable walking distance for most people.
San Vicente is also part of the Eco-towns Project of the Climate Change Commission, and as such, recommendations in the masterplan support goals to improve the resilience of San Vicente’s communities and ecosystems.
Real estate investments are already underway in the coastal municipality, attesting to its favorable potential.
Sources: Inquirer Archives, psa.gov.ph, tieza.gov.ph, philatlas.com, tourism.puertoprincesa.ph, sanvicentepalawan.gov.ph
