PILI, CAMARINES Sur?Nineteen French travel agents and operators visited Camarines Sur last weekend to savor and inspect the tourist sites and facilities available to foreign tourists.

The French visitors came here to personally see for themselves the sites and facilities they will be promoting in Europe, according to Arnold Gonzales, official of the Department of Tourism based in Europe, who accompanied them in their CamSur tour.

The visit was the second one the DoT had initiated to promote and sell CamSur as a prime tourist destination.

Gov. Luis Raymund ?LRay? Villafuerte welcomed the promotional activity initiated by the DoT, saying that the tourism program he initiated four years ago continued to pay off.

Villafuerte said the centerpiece program on tourism and information technology would continue to validate the program direction of the province.

CamSur, he said, had shed its image as a province saddled with insurgency and poverty problems, and turned into a prime tourist destination that local and foreign travelers would come to visit again and again.

Courtesy of the Provincial Tourism Office, the French visitors enjoyed the facilities of the Camsur Watersports Complex in the morning.

They were later brought to the Caramoan peninsula in the afternoon.

Lucia Wenian Villanueva, acting provincial tourism officer, said the French visitors were brought to the Gota Beach Resort where they took off to visit other islands comprising the Caramoan peninsula.

Villanueva said that after the island-hopping?which brought them to Hunungan, Matukad, Lahos and Tayak?the French visitors went back to Gota Beach Resort for another surprise.

She said they expressed their appreciation of the natural wonders of the Caramoan peninsula and enjoyed swimming around the small islands, taking their time sunbathing.

Going back to Gota Beach Resort, the French visitors were treated to a cultural show and a video presentation of ?Koh Lanta: Caramoan,? the French version of the reality show shot in Caramoan.

The ?Koh Lanta: Caramoan? was shown in France with total viewers estimated at 12 million.