Tourism Officers Meet

Jennylind Demerre  Cordero, ATOP Past President receives a
Service Medallion during the ATOP Pearl Awards Night

ATOP came back to Bacolod for the 15th National Convention

There are 7,107 Islands, 81 provinces, 144 cities, 1,494 municipalities in the Philippines. Recently most of the hotels were filled up with more than 1,400 delegates at the 15th Association of Tourism Officers National Convention held in Bacolod. This was the second time in nine years that the Province hosted the convention, this time however the number of participants had tripled. Biggest delegation was from the province of Benguet with about 400, composed of tourism council members, officials and tourism officers.

Benguet delegates visit the Ruins

Jennylind, Cora Tito (GenSan), Grace Marzan(DOT)
 and Roselyn Merlin (Surigao City)

ATONO, the local tourism officers association in Negros worked round the clock assisting ATOP for reception and tours, with more than 15 daily flights from Manila, Cebu and Davao starting at 5am to 8 pm. The convention was scheduled to start on October 2, however as early as September 30, many already came and started filling up hotels. It has been three years that I have not attended the convention from Capiz, Dapitan to Albay and surprisingly many were happy to see their past president for the 15th convention. They came in buses, each flight must have been filled by the group, we had pre-registered participants at 870 and the second day was just overwhelming, we had to order more kits, which was a native bag locally known as ‘bayong’ designed like the Philippines’ tourism brand ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ by the pandan weavers of Calatrava, with dri-fit shirts, personalized pens and a notebook promoting western visayas.

ATOP National Presidents, Al Tesoro (Capiz 2014-2016), Roselyn Merlin
 (Surigao City2009 and 2010), Jennylind Cordero
 (Negros Occ. 2007 and 2008) ,
Mike Sison (Alaminos , Pangasinan 20011-2013)

Patricia Bilbao and Jenny Cordero with the trophies for
Negros Occidental,
 Awards for Best Tourism Month Celebration
 and the Best Tourism Oriented Province Award for 2014

Ian de Ramos spearheaded the Welcome Dinner at the Bacolod Pavilion themed “Matam-is nga Pagtamyaw (Our Sweet Greetings) hosted by the Provincial Government, it was a showcase of talents and delegates wore their regional costumes with the colourful ones from Mindanao.

Negros Occidental City and Municipal Tourism Officers
Helen Cutillar (Sagay), Janeth Joseph(La Carlota), Ma. Elma Gerasmo (Bacolod City),\ Jim Piedad,, Mark Canobis(Cauayan) and Lynette Cervantes (La Castellana)

Highlight of the tourism officers convention was the Immersion Tour of 1,432 delegates, we prepared six itineraries with the Organic Farm Tour – North: a day at Penalosa farm, Victorias Milling Company, tour guide Artie Lacson presented the St. Joseph the Worker Church, its mural and statues in Filipino Liturgical Art . They also visited VMC Golf Club where snacks was served by the company and Victorias City, plus a tour of the Museums in Silay and Talisay and shopping. Next option is a Nature Adventure Tour of Mambukal Resort, the delegates had time at the Panaad Park and Sports Complex, the Negros Museum, the Ruins and shopping. Another option was the Cultural and Heritage Tour of Silay and Talisay, visitors went to Hofilena Heritage House, Balay Negrense, Silay Museum, Bernardino Jalandoni Museum, San Diego Pro Cathedral, the Ruins and shopping. A Nature Adventure Tour of Campuestohan Highland Resort was another option where delegates had the chance to sky bike, do the rope course, take pictures and have fun doing the zipline, three participants as old as 68 mostly female from Benguet were awarded umbrellas for braving the zipline, they also had time with Mr. Ricardo ‘Cano’ Tan inspiring them with the resorts experience . About 250 visited Mays Garden, OISCA Sericulture Farm, Buenos Aires Mountain Resort and the House of General Juan Araneta in Bago. A group of seventy went to Sagay City for the Marine Ecotourism experience. All tour groups were entertained with drumbeaters, festival dancers, sumptuous lunch with lechon and shopping.

with the ATOP Officers
Arwin of Pampanga , Mike Palispis of Aurora, JDC, Mike Sison of
 Alaminos Pangasinan
 and  RR Maquiling of Dumaguete City

There were more than 20 tour guides, 35 tourism student guides, nurses and rescue groups from each lgu during the tour. Each destination had a talk on agri-entrepreneurship, eco- tourism, agri-tourism, marine conservation and resort management, it was fun and PIO prepared a video for the participants and posted it on the social media.

The delegates had a masquerade dinner in black at the Peoples House fountain area. The next day was the convention proper with the talk of Domingo Ramon Enerio II, Tourism Promotions Board Chief on ‘2015 ASEAN Visit Philippines Year: Advancing the Unique Brand of Philippine Tourism Destinations and Hospitality Experience’ there were many resource speakers like Marichu Tellano, Dr. Mario Aguja and Mr. Perry Coseteng. 

The convention dinner was hosted by the Department of Tourism Region 6 , themed Experience Western Visayas, dancers from Iloilo performed the Dinagyang, the Capitol Singing Ambassadors entertained the audience with songs on Philippine Tourism, this was capped with the 9th Pearl Awards with Negros Occidental awarded as the Best Tourism Week Celebration and the Best Tourism Oriented Province in the country, the second time awarded to our province during Governor Alfredo Maranon ‘s administration. Other LGU’s like Silay, Sagay, Sipalay and Pulupandan bested other cities and municipalities in other categories. It was a memorable 15th ATOP National Convention with the Medallion of Service awarded to us past presidents, it was well attended.

Thanks to PIO Negros for the Video Production!