LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The municipal government embarked on an aggressive effort to promote the town’s tourist destinations to ensure that the municipality is in the preferred destination of tourists in the north following the upcoming roll out of major innovations that will pave the way for the expected increase in tourist arrivals.
Councilor Belmer Elis, chairperson of the municipal council committee on tourism, said that this year, the local government will be pilot testing its own version of the search for lucky visitors to the valley during the celebration of the Tourism Week that is slated on September 21-29, 2024.
He claimed that there will be some pre-selected lucky visitors who will be chosen by local tour operators from various terminals leading to the municipality who will be receiving a guided tour to some selected tourist destinations in the municipality on September 24, 2024 aside from being provided with the necessary recognition from the local government during a fitting program at the municipal gymnasium.
“Our search for this year’s lucky visitors will be conducted only for one day for us to be able to work on possible adjustments for the future staging of the said activity. We want our visitors to witness the unique tourist destinations and help in promoting La Trinidad as one of the preferred destinations in terms of experiential visits,” Councilor Elis stressed.
The town’s lucky visitors program is patterned after the annual Search for the Lucky Summer Visitors being spearheaded by the Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club, a media organization, in partnership with the Baguio city government where first-time visitors who are selected during the Holy Week will be treated to a 4-day red carpet treatment by the members of the media.
The alderman said that the municipal government will be announcing the criteria of the selection of the lucky visitors once the committee shall have finalized the guidelines considering that consultations are now being currently done with concerned tourism industry stakeholders on how to smoothly undertake the said activity.
Initially, the tourist spots in the municipality where the lucky visitors will be toured include the strawberry farm, the Bahong sunflower farm and other private resorts in the said barangay, the Admirals Park in Puguis and other scenic spots that will be agreed upon by the members of the committee responsible in handling the said event.
Earlier, the municipal government institutionalized the annual celebration of Tourism Week every third week of September to allow the aggressive promotion of the municipality as one of the preferred tourist destinations among foreign and domestic visitors when visiting the north as the town serves as a gateway to the central Cordillera.
Councilor Elis expressed the municipal government’s gratitude to the local tour operators, the owners of the tourism sites and other industry stakeholders for strengthening their partnership that allowed the introduction of the appropriate innovations that will surely spice up the great experiences of visitors when visiting the numerous tourist destinations around the municipality that will help in spurring the economic activities and sources of livelihood of the people. By Dexter A. See
