It is expected for a City to be visited by tourists for its natural beauty. The seven small-crater lakes have been an asset to San Pablo City, not only for the livelihood it provides and as a food (fish) source, but also for tourism. The table below shows the number of visitors to each lake from 2015 to 2022. The first tab provides an annual perspective of the data, while the third tab provides the average number of visitors to each lake from the indicated period.
The graph above shows a trend line for the number of tourists who visited the seven lakes from 2015 to 2022. It can be observed that the number of tourists who visited the seven lakes increased during this period. Sampaloc Lake recorded the most visitors since it is within the town's center, where government offices and commercial establishments abound.
As observed in the chart above, the highest number of visitors recorded was in 2017 in Sampaloc Lake. In 2017, the San Pablo City LGU established some small parks in Sampaloc Lake as a strategy to prevent informal settlers from building houses surrounding the lakes. It was an effective measure that even allowed the city to boost its tourism. Furthermore, the graph shows that there are also notable tourism activities in Lakes Pandin and Yambo, as well as in Bunot Lake. Pandin Lake and Yambo Lake are both oligotrophic in nature, thus not suitable for aquaculture. Thus, communities surrounding the lakes shifted to ecotourism activities, such as raft tours.
Key Highlights:
Pandin & Yambo Lakes ("Twin Lakes")- fish production has been generally low even during the past decades . Local people’s organizations preferred that the lakes be used mainly for tourism since there are only a few operators who can sustain growing fish in cages using artificial feeds that are costly.
However, it should be noted that Class C standard water bodies such as the seven lakes are not recommended for contact recreation such as bathing and swimming.
An aerial view of one of the resorts in Yambo Lake.