The provincial government of Guimaras is hoping to at least duplicate the over PHP105 million tourism receipts generated last year as the 2026 Manggahan Festival kicked off Friday afternoon.

Governor Ma. Lucille Nava said they are excited to showcase more of the province in this year’s “sweetest” festival.

She said the standard events are still in the lineup, including eat-all-you-can mangoes, music festival, Miss Guimaras beauty pageant, celebration of the 34th provincehood of Guimaras and cultural festival.

“This year it will be more vibrant, more competitive and more representative of the stories of the provinces. It would be an upgraded, better, more vibrant festival. We are coping with our rebranding,” Nava said in a press conference.

Provincial Economic Development Officer Francis Gentoral said they documented 40,154 guests in 2025, with the agri-eco trade fair and food-related revenues as among the highest contributors last year.

The trade fair alone, out of the business-to-business and product sales performance, generated around PHP14.3 million, while the food-related revenue was PHP10.35 million.

The mango-eat-all-you-can, with its high visibility and branding value, contributed a modest direct revenue of over PHP832,000.

“This year, despite the crisis, we hope to maintain the figures, that’s why we do some important rebranding to ensure that we have repeat tourists coming back because of the excitement, the color and the vibrancy that we hope to input in our Manggahan Festival this year,” he said.

Provincial Agriculturist Alvin Nava said that they prepared 18 tons of sweet mangoes for the eat-all-you-can for tourists to enjoy at the price of PHP100 within 30 minutes.

The volume is around five metric tons higher than last year, with the adjustment in the schedule.

“Every weekend, we will extend until 7 p.m. In the previous year, we were only until 5 p.m. This year, we will extend that,” he said.

The province made a rebranding for Manggahan using the tagline “the sweetest festival.”

Jaypee Kein Entredicho, officer-in-charge at the Provincial Tourism Office, said the key message is that the “sweetest is not just the taste” but the feeling when one visits the island and “experience the island of mangoes and more.”

“We always highlight that at the center of our development are the five municipalities. The five colors in our mango logo represent the five municipalities of the province, being the seed and the core of the development of the province,” he explained.

Blue represents the municipality of Buenavista, red for Jordan, green for Nueva Valencia, yellow for Sibunag and purple for San Lorenzo.

The festival runs until May 24. (PNA)