BONTOC, Mt. Province – Some 50 pre-screened tour guides in the province will be trained in Sagada on June 11-17, 2018 before they become full pledged ecotour guides.
Close to a hundred applicants were pre-screened on June 1, 2018 at Sagada and at the Provincial Tourism Office. Some applicants did not show up at the pre-screening or were either found to be employed or students.
The training is hosted by the provincial government through the Provincial Tourism Office and sponsored by the Cordillera regional office of the Department of Tourism.
As the training is a strategic direction contained in the Philippine National Tourism Development Plan, the provincial government included it as part of an eco-tourism program under the nature and culture based tourism portfolio.
The trainees will be increase their knowledge and skills on ecotourism guiding, including oral communications, and raise their awareness on the principles of sustainable tourism responsive to environmental protection.
They will also be oriented on current eco-tourism trends and updates obtaining in various tourism fronts.
The participants in this seminar are from the municipalities of Barlig, Sadanga, Paracelis, Bontoc, Sabangan, and Tadian.
They will be organized and federated to form a pool of tour guides who are on call anywhere in the province.
Meanwhile, the Provincial Tourism Office conducted a 2-day Municipal Tourism Development Planning workshop last May 30-31, 2018 in Kadaclan, Barlig.
The output will be incorporated in the Barlig Municipal Tourism Development Plan to make the tourism industry take off for the better in the eastern municipality.
Basic tourism awareness was introduced to the participants for them to know what is tourism and what a tourist is, how they spend money and how this spending can help bring about economic activity to the communities. etc.
Municipal tourism profiling and value chain analysis on tourism were also components of the planning activity.
A first time for the municipality, tourism stakeholders from the town attended the activity including representatives of the municipality and barangay officials, tour guides, transport, lodging, and the education sector.
By Roger Sacyaten
