BAGUIO CITY – The local government intends to reactivate the private sector-led and government supported Baguio Tourism Council (BTC) to further enhance the robust growth of the local tourism industry with the active involvement of concerned stakeholders.
Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong recently convened the stakeholders that composed the Board of Directors of the council where the process of working out the immediate reactivation of the body was discussed to guide the crafting of the appropriate executive issuance governing the reactivation of the same.
The city chief executive urged the private sector representatives to continue with the previous arrangement of spearheading the council with the government playing the support role and for the private sector to be upfront in raising their concerns so that the city government can takeover anytime when needed to pursue the programs, projects and activities of the group that are geared towards the upliftment of the city’s tourism industry.
Based on the schedule of activities prepared by the City Tourism Office, members of the Baguio Tourism Council have its general assembly on September 27, 2019 to discuss its directions and role in the city, aside from looking into the possibility of expanding its membership to accommodate interested individuals and groups wanting to sustain the growth of the local tourism industry.
The BTC was chaired by Baguio Country Club general manager Anthony de Leon who informed the council of his decision to step down and for Gladys de Vera to take over office as the interim chairperson until the conduct of elections to formalize the new members of the council’s Board of Directors.
Initially, the BTC members agreed to work on the proposed amendments to the 2009 Baguio Tourism Code to address various issues and concerns affecting the local tourism industry once the proposals on the proposed changes to the code will be put in place.
One of the proposed amendment to the code is the inclusion of the City Mayor as co-chairperson of the BTC to set a semblance of it being private sector-led and government-supported while making it a policy that the private sector will focus on policy formulation and the government on the implementation of the crafted policies.
The BTC was organized in 2000 and underwent several reorganizations over the past several years before it became inactive sometime in 2014.
The members of the Board of Directors in 2014 were convened to revive the active involvement of the tourism council in the numerous tourism-related activities being organized by the private and public sectors aimed at sustaining the robust growth of the local tourism industry as part of enhancing the city’s economic growth in the coming years, especially that one of the 15-point collective agenda of the present administration is for a revitalized tourism industry. By Dexter A. See
