LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Mayor Romeo Salda ordered the suspension of the various activities lined up by the local government to celebrate the Tourism Week in the locality.
The local chief executive underscored that it is necessary to rest the activities for the celebration of Tourism Week to allow the municipality and the whole region to recover from the previous onslaught of Tropical Cyclone Ompong that resulted to the occurrence of three deaths in the town apart from multi-million worth of damages to the agriculture sector and major infrastructure projects both national and local.
“We hope that concerned tourism industry stakeholders in the locality will understand our decision to reset the conduct of the activities lined up for the celebration of Tourism Week. We have to concentrate our efforts in the on-going relief and recovery operations, especially that the province is one of the hardest hit areas by the weather disturbance,” Mayor Salda stressed.
Earlier, the local government lined up series of activities for the celebration of Tourism Week on September 24-29, 2018 to help in aggressively promoting the town’s tourism industry to entice more foreign and domestic visitors to frequent the various tourist spots in the locality.
According to him, it will best for the local government to move back the celebration to a later date when most of the people were able to recover from the wrath of the weather disturbance so that they will be able to enjoy the various activities that have been lined up for the promotion of the town’s tourism industry that was able to significantly improve through the years being located adjacent to Baguio city, one of the preferred tourist destinations in the country.
Salda appealed to residents and the members of the local tourism industry to continue extending their all-out support in the conduct of tourism-related activities by both the government and the private sectors to contribute in sustaining the growth of the industry that will spur the existence of more economic activities and sources of livelihood for the growing population.
La Trinidad plays host to scenic tourist spots like the different organic farms distributed in the town’s 16 barangays, the famous strawberry and cutflower farms, the different demonstration farms owned by private individuals and the State-run Benguet State University (BSU), trekking destinations like mount Kalogong among others.
Salda admitted the town continues to benefit from the influx of visitors to Baguio city because most of the weekend visitors also flock to the town to enjoy the famous strawberry picking activities and other visits to organic and cutflower farms.
Salda claimed that key tourism personalities inside and outside the province were invited to actively participate in the week-log tourism Week when the final schedule will be announced as part of their unwavering contribution to the growth and development of the first-class municipality.
By HENT
