Tuguegarao City, Province of Cagayan, Cagayan Valley Region, Philippines

🇵🇭 Tuguegarao, officially the City of Tuguegarao, is a 3rd class component city and capital of the province of Cagayan, Philippines. It is the most populous city in Cagayan Valley and North-eastern Luzon. A major urban centre and primary growth centre in the North-eastern Luzon, it is the regional centre of Cagayan Valley and also its regional institutional and administrative centre. One of the fast emerging cities in the Philippines, the city is a convergence area for the provinces of Cagayan, Kalinga, Apayao and northern Isabela. Dubbed as the “Gateway to the Ilocandia and the Cordilleras”, the city is located on the southern border of the province where the Pinacanauan River empties into the Cagayan River. It is surrounded by the Sierra Madre Mountains to the east, Cordillera Mountains to the west, and the Caraballo Mountains to the south.

Economy Within the past three decades, its economy gradually shifted from agriculture to trading, commerce and services. The shift was ushered by Tuguegarao's role as the Regional Government Centre and Centre of Commerce in Northern Luzon. In early 2016, Tuguegarao City was named as one of the ten emerging cities in the 2015 Next Wave Cities report, conducted by Department of Science and Technology - Information and Communications Technology Office (DOST-ICTO). In 2020, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), in partnership with the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) and Leechiu Property Consultants (LPC), named Tuguegarao as one of the 25 "digital cities" poised to be prospect growth areas of the information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) sector in the country by 2025.

Currently, Tuguegarao City has two major public markets, namely, the Don Domingo Public Market — located in the upper part of Poblacion serving as the convergence of agricultural and aquatic products from neighboring towns and provinces — and the Tuguegarao City Commercial Center — formerly known as Mall of the Valley and is located at the Central Business District, receiving the highest daily foot traffic.

Retail and business process outsourcing Large retail operators have shown significant interest to the growth and increase of land value in cities throughout the Philippines. They are seen as highly developed urban centres where a lot of economic activities take place, and is important to urbanization and development. Tuguegarao is eyed as a centre of exponential growth for commerce, industry and service, strengthening its stature as the capital of the Cagayan Valley Region.

SM Prime, the largest retail operator in the country, opened SM Center Tuguegarao Downtown on October 12, 2017, its first mall in Cagayan. Plans have also been made for the construction of another SM mall, anticipating opening in 2021.

In 2018, rival Robinsons Land Corporation opened the mixed-use complex shopping mall Robinsons Place Tuguegarao as the first full-service mall in Cagayan, including a Go Hotels branch, the first in the region. A few km away from Robinsons Place Tuguegarao, DoubleDragon Properties, a subsidiary of SM Investments Corporation, constructed CityMall Tuguegarao which opened in 2021, its first in the region.

Other notable shopping centres include the Tuguegarao City Commercial Center, formerly known as the Mall of the Valley; FCI Citimall, the first shopping mall in Northern Luzon; Brickstone Mall; Primark Town Center Tuguegarao, former site of Paseo Reale Mall; Unitop Mall Tuguegarao; Mart One Department Store and more.

Following the opening of 7 Eleven stores in Nueva Vizcaya, and Isabela provinces, the Philippine Seven Corporation expanded its reach to the Cagayan with its two branches in the city at College Avenue, near University of Cagayan Valley and at the new Valley Hotel Tower Mall in Balzain, now there are more than 6 Branches of 7 Eleven stores around the city.

The city has seen a significant growth of auto-hub companies with the presence of car showrooms in the city. Car brands such as Mitsubishi, Hyundai, and Toyota have set up their dealerships in the different parts of the city, mostly located along the major highways of the urbanity. The largest of which is from Toyota located at Carig Sur near the city hall.

The City Government of Tuguegarao, through the city's Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Council hosted a meeting with IT-BPO companies Sitel Philippines Inc. and Lee Chiu Property Consultants, Inc. in 2018 to discuss the possibilities of locating their companies in the city. Initial steps have been made for the establishment of an IT park and a township where BPO companies could locate.

Banking and real estate Tuguegarao City, as the seat of the regional capital of Cagayan Valley, houses the regional headquarters of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas located at the Regional Government Center in Carig Sur. A total of 53 banks are operating in the city such as BPI, BDO, Chinabank, RCBC, EastWest, UnionBank, Robinsons Bank, PNB, Bank of Commerce, Landbank, UCPB, Philippine Postal Savings Bank and others.

Major real estate developers Ayala Land — Avida Settings Tuguegarao — and Vista Land — Camella Tuguegarao, Lessandra Cagayan and the expansion of Camella Cagayan Trails — are constructing their housing developments in Cagayan Valley. The North Gateway Business Park is an 18-hectare (44-acre) mixed-use township development project located in Barangay Carig Sur, near the Regional Government Center. Launched in 2020, by real estate developer DataLand, it will feature a mixed-use superblock of retail shops, transport terminal, hotel and residential condominiums and a business park for BPO companies, financial institutions and major corporations.

Metro Tuguegarao In 2019, the National Economic and Development Authority Regional Development Council - Region 2 worked with consulting firms Pacific Rim Innovation and Management Exponents, Inc. (PRIMEX), Engineering and Development Corporation of the Philippines (EDCOP) and the Key Engineer Corporation to prepare a master plan for spurring economic growth in the Metro Tuguegarao zone. The metropolitan area, known as PIEST, includes the municipalities of Peñablanca, Iguig, Enrile, Solana and the city of Tuguegarao. A situation analysis made by the consultative bodies found out that agriculture, water resource and tourism sectors were some of the "unutilized potentials" seen as key in the development of the area.