The government has embarked on tourism as one of the economic drivers in the countryside with the projected increase in the number of local visitors going around the country and sustained increase in the number of foreign tourists spending a well-deserved break in chosen tourist spots around the archipelago. The Cordillera is identified as one of the major ecotourism destinations in the country because of majestic and towering mountains, unique flora and fauna, peace-loving people and well-preserved scenery worthy of providing visitors with a respite from stress.
Ecotourism is a broad term which is also referred to as sustainable/green/soft tourism and is seen as an alternative model to tourism development which puts emphasis on economic and spatial development in selected areas with trickle-down benefits to local communities and allied industries. Although this is supposed to build upon local environmental and ecological resources with some degree of local community participation, it has also its downsides. In a study conducted in 1990 by the World Wildlife Fund, it was found that this model often failed to take into account the cultural heritage and local cultural conditions of the area and can be appropriated by external tour operators that can lead to cutthroat competition. This clearly has happened in one of the popular ecotourism destinations in Mountain Province where Manila-based tour operators book trips without any confirmation from locals leading to visitor and resource overloads.
A look at the many so-called ecotourism destinations in the country that cater to mass tourism most often only provide concrete amenities that sometimes totally destroy the thing it is supposed to promote. For example, there is a rocky outcrop in one of the plateaus of Mountain Province that provides an awesome panoramic view of the Cordillera mountain range. Tourism planners thought that building a view deck over the stone would bring in more visitors to the place. It completely destroys the view including that of the stone as a wonder of nature too! Just the experience of standing atop that stone and viewing nature’s wonders is enough attraction but really, does our tourism department and local officials know about optimizing nature’s features to promote responsible tourism with minimal intervention?
For the past several years, the government heavily invested on infrastructure development to help reduce the inconvenience of motorists in going to and from their tourist destinations. However, it must also make sure these infrastructures must be designed well to blend with the environment and are free from corruption so that public money is not wasted. Often, amenities like toilets are put in place as an ugly part of the landscape. Worse, maintenance is absent and water it not available it is better to answer the call of nature behind the bushes than using them. Which brings us to the other consideration. Often, our watersheds had been sacrificed for economic gain, and many tourist attractions also destroy parts of these watersheds. Also, often the resorts are privatizing water rights depriving local communities, especially
farmers, of water. Considerations on the use of water for the survival of business over that of the greater majority of the community should always be for the interest of the local community.
If tourism is to be used as an intervention for poverty alleviation, it is well to consider the so-called pro-poor approach whose overall aim is to streamline the flow of benefits directly to those that need it most within the community to avoid elite capture of the benefits. In indigenous communities, no new poor should be created because of the deprivation of collective resources and sources of subsistence, while ensuring that the indigenous peoples’ free prior and informed consent is sought for every stage of tourism development and project. A safe approach is always to facilitate the conceptualization of tourism plans with the communities as a whole, with vulnerable sectors given special measures to address their concerns, with the assurance of equitable benefit-sharing. In this connection, local government units through the facilitation of the Department of Tourism and relevant agencies must initiate awareness of the concept of benefit-sharing, payment for ecological services, and sustainable development in the communities.
In Baguio, it is disheartening to hear officials always talk about increasing tourist arrivals when the city is already groaning from the negative impacts of unbridled tourism. The poor residents suffer from high prices of goods, services, and land. Garbage during major crowd-drawing events is left to be attended by the city government and residents. Local tourist attractions as overcrowded they are not attractive nor healthy anymore. The local legislative body most often come up with resolutions that try to cater first to the needs and whims of visitors instead of its constituency. The public is jeering at a councilor who proposed that visitors be exempted from the number coding traffic scheme as if his votes came from these
visitors. The local government units must facilitate sincerely the inputs of the poor in any tourism plan and program they are conceptualizing is they really intend to use this industry to address poverty in a sustainable way.
The government must walk its talk in its tourism promotion locally and internationally. Tourism should enhance environmental protection, educate visitors on the local ways of life as a means of combating discrimination, strengthen indigenous people’s pride in their cultural heritage, and enhance socially-redeeming character of the people.
