NEWS
A Commitment for Tourism

Dang with hubby Oscar Villamora, Jr in Egypt with the pyramids in the background.

Erlene “Dang” Bonita-Villamora had a lucrative job in the United States and was very much sought for as a Spanish and Tourism professor with a scintillating academic background but she has opted to detach herself from the grandeur of both opportunities. Instead, she set up her own travel agency, Island Gems
Travel Tours, because in this preoccupation she is harbinger of joy to people and she finds fulfillment making others happy. Moreover, she wants to be part of the tourism development initiatives in the province, especially for the Caramoan Peninsula.

The financial rewards in this modest business is not really enticing especially in areas where the tourism industry has just broken out from its shell, the 28-year old beauteous daughter of leading Caramoan businessman and Mrs. Eduardo Bonita confessed. “But when you’re doing a thing that you know helps people a lot and make them enjoy life, every minute of the day in this commitment is a moment of fulfillment” Dang explains.

Dang, the nickname by which she says she feels comfortable, was a professor in Spanish and in Tourism at the La Consolacion College in Manila and had worked as Executive Assistant at the Passport and Visa Services International at Virginia, U.S.A., either of which would have assured her adequate income.
Moreover, with her amazing scholastic feat as two-time scholar to Spain and being articulate and knowledgeable it would have been always easy for her to get a good-paying job.

But Dang has always been obsessed with tourism. She believes that tourism is the key if not to prosperity at least to better life for Bicolanos especially in Camarines Sur.

Her agency has thus evolved tour packages that would not only help residents here to get to places anywhere in the world they yearn to visit but more importantly bring tourists to interesting sites in the province and in Bicol and elsewhere in the country. Island Gems Travel and Tours which has its office at the Ground Floor of the Old GSIS Building in Barlin St., Naga City (telefax 054 811 88 94 and cellphone 09175776657) has in fact been offering the following tour packages:

Two Days and One Night Caramoan Adventure, Day Tour Camarines Sur; Day Tour Sorsogon; Day Tour Legazpi; Day Tour Naga; Day Tour Camarines Norte; Four Days in Manila and Corregidor; Four Days in Manila, Tagaytay and Enchanted Kingdom; Five Days in Baguio City and Manila; Four Days in Cebu and Bohol; Five Days in Palawan; Four Days in Vigan and Laoag; and Two Days in Villa Escudero.
Dang’s foreign tour packages include: Three Days in Hongkong; Four Days Disneyland and Tour in Shenzhen City; Four Days in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia; Four Days in Shanghai; Four Days in Beijing; Four Days in Seoul; Three days in Bangkok including tour packages to Kuala Lumpur, Bali, Jakarta, Saigon, Guam and Australia.

“My task is to make it very convenient for our clients to be where they want to be, freed from the hustle and bustle and confusion that usually dampen the enthusiasm of earnest travelers”, Dang pointed out. Dang is the youngest of only three children of former Caramoan Councilor Bonita who himself is an ardent exponent of tourism development. She married in December 2004 Oscar Villamora, Jr., son of Atty. Oscar Villamora and retired auditor Proserpina Imperial Villamora. He is connected with Johnson & Johnson, Philippines.