Nicquee's Nook

Puerto Princesa: Cruising to be a Top MICE Enclave

The after-effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic which crippled the tourism industry can still be felt in the Philippines. However, Puerto Princesa, the “Heart of the Best Island in the World,” harnesses its vast potential not only as a destination of choice but also as a preferred center of MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions, and events) to forge ahead and move forward.

Paradise in Profile

Puerto Princesa is the center of trade and commerce, education, communications, and public administration of Palawan. Its strategic location is within the growth corridor of the BIMP East ASEAN Growth Area.

Known for its UNESCO World Heritage site Underground River, it shares 50 percent of the tourist arrivals in Palawan and in the region, making it the biggest contributor to its economic growth. In 2020, Palawan logged a partial number of 157,051 tourist arrivals, 71,889 of which were visits to PPC.

A tropical paradise with a bustling urban center perfect for business-with-leisure trips, PP is blessed with lush rainforests and white-sand beaches hours away from the city proper, where a banking and commercial boom has made life easier for workaholics and busybodies.

Puerto Princesa is a relatively young settlement, having been established as a city only in 1970. The first settlers arrived on March 4, 1872; a date celebrated every year as the foundation day of the city.

As part of the Philippines’ last frontier, the city is rich in natural resources. It is the country’s largest city with a land area of 253,982 hectares. A chain of mountain ranges runs through the entire length of the city, dividing it into two distinct areas – the East Coast and the West Coast.

A significant portion of the city retains its indigenous vegetation, rainforest, mangroves, and coastal ecosystem, all of which support an amazing array of wildlife. In terms of species biodiversity and its wide range of ecosystems, Puerto Princesa is of national significance. The famous and must-visit Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, which was formerly known as Saint Paul’s Subterranean River National Park, covering a protected area of 22,202 hectares is a haven to endemic flora and fauna. UNESCO has inscribed the park as a World’s Heritage Site on December 4, 1999.

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GoodAh!!!: How Comfort Tastes for Filipinos

When it comes to appetite, it’s a well-known fact that Filipinos have the most adventurous of tastes. We are not afraid to explore different flavors, even from the international food scene. Still, amidst food fads and foreign cuisines, nothing beats the love we have for our own fare. When we look for comfort and familiarity, a lot of us still find our way back home to Filipino food.

GoodAh!!!, the first ever all-native food chain in the country, has been providing comfort food to Pinoys for more than 30 years.  The brand can be considered a legend in the local restaurant scene, having been the one to introduce the iconic “Tapsilog” to the Filipino vocabulary. It is also known for its iconic lugaw, which people way back from the 90s would agree is what ‘comfort in a bowl’ tastes like. Decades after its establishment, the food chain continues to offer “Pagkaing Good for Every-All” with its menu made to satiate our Filipino food cravings.

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Jolly Empowers Home Cooks By Feeding Their Creativity In The Kitchen

They say the easiest way to someone’s heart is through the stomach. For many homemakers, especially moms, this is very much true the moment they step into the kitchen. One simply gets an unexplainable feeling when you put the time and effort into preparing something special for the people who matter to you the most. The same also goes, of course, if you’re at the receiving end of such a selfless effort.

While moms are real geniuses in the kitchen, however, there are also some downtimes when inspiration can run low. Fortunately, Jolly is here to curb that challenge for our home cooks. As the leading brand of packed fruit and vegetable products, Jolly brings convenience straight into our pantries by giving us easy access to fresh ingredients. The brand — which was born from the vision of empowering homemakers and unlocking their creative potential in the kitchen — has continuously enabled this by providing freshly packed fruits and vegetables straight into our pantries. This convenience, combined with the high quality of its products, has made Jolly a market leader in its industry and a top choice among home cooks.

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