BAUKO, Mountain Province – Mayor Abraham B. Akilit disclosed the heavy influx of visitors wanting to witness the town’s scenic tourist destinations during the prolonged year-end holiday break is a testament that the local tourism industry is starting to flourish.
The local chief executive claimed that nature lovers flocked to the municipality during the holidays to visit the new tourist destinations offered by the town, particularly treking the scenic and majestic Mount Polis and visiting the Kalimbatawa eco-park in Otucan, proving that there is a bright future for the town’s tourism industry, one of the major economic drivers in the future.
He revealed that during the 4-day Christmas break, over 1,000 foreign and domestic visitors trekked Mount Polis and joined the festivities organized in the Kalimbatawa eco-park and the same was replicated during the 4-day New Year break, an indication that tourists want to explore new destinations for the appreciation of the beauty of nature.
“We want to have our own branding that is why we have engaged the host barangays to be our partners in the development and promotion of our existing tourist destinations for us to gain a substantial share of the tourist arrivals in the region throughout the year,” Mayor Akilit stressed.
He said there is a need to instill discipline and honesty among those administering the affairs of the existing tourist destinations in the locality so that the appropriate income derived from tourist arrivals will be reflected in the further development of the barangays that stand to benefit once there will be continuous tourist arrivals.
According to him, residents must also be responsible in posting photographs or videos of the state of the tourist destinations so as not to taint a bad image of what the sites actually look like in certain times of the day because it is the overall state of the local economy that will be at stake once people become irresponsible in their postings in the social media.
Akilit stated the local government remains bullish in its promotion of the scenic destinations because it will be tourism that will help generate jobs and provide increased economic activities and sources of livelihood for the people in the areas.
He appealed to residents of the host villages to make sure that they preserve and protect the scenery and beauty of the existing tourist destinations and to continue exploring other potential tourist destinations in the 22 barangays to sustain the visitors toperk up the local economy and to empower people to be engaged in tourism-related businesses.
Further, Akilit also urged concerned government agencies to help in the development of potential tourist destinations in the town to provide the tourists with new destinations instead of concentrating their programs and projects in established tourism destinations in the different parts of the region.
By HENT
