Promoting Negros Tourism

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September is indeed TOURISM MONTH, this is the time when there are a lot of events happening in the tourism industry which started with the Philippine Tourism Promotions Board, Travel Exchange, MICE Conference, the country’s biggest travel exhibition the Philippine Travel Mart , the 3rd Philippine Tourism Forum and the Tourism Week celebration which will be highlighted on the 27th of September as World Tourism Day with the theme ‘One Billion Tourists: One Billion Opportunities’.

The 3rd Philippine Tourism Forum was a gathering of tourism stakeholders in the industry themed Business of Tourism ASEAN and Beyond. This was a rare occasion where five tourism secretaries attended, which was the very reason why I attended the one day affair . This event  was a powerhouse of speakers with no less than Architect Felino Palafox Jr. who talked about ‘The Rise of Tourism Cities and Urban Planning’, Mr. Jay Yuvallos  -Widening Tourism Research Through ASEAN and Asia and the Pacific Business Cooperation, Atty. Alexander Cabrera also talked about the Philippine Gems, Discovering Destinations wherein three destinations in Negros Island was chosen as top ten in the country with Danjugan Island, Mount Kanlaon, and Apo Island. Former Tourism Undersecretary Oscar Palabyab also talked about the ASEAN Tourism Agenda. The best part though was the presence of Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez who mentioned that we are now getting a longer haul of tourist who spends and average of 10.6 days in the country, there are 316 infrastructure projects today to improve our accessibility from road networks leading to seaports, airports and destinations about 1,549.59 kilometers completed, 110 road projects completed, we also have  a number of  cruise calls, with larger ships docking in our ports in Subic, Manila, Puerto Princesa and Boracay. As another three-day weekend is coming, it has been noted that 1.74 trillion is spent outside Manila, with about 4.7 million employed in the industry.

Former tourism secretary Joseph Durano talked about Local Tourism Governance, he mentioned that not all Local Government Units is created equally but there is a criteria that we have to consider: There has to be the right attitude of the local leader towards tourism development, the commitments should be important among our local leaders with proper policies,the people should have a deep sense of local pride, each of us has a role to support and assist key players, we have to grab the opportunity and promote our destinations, we should stay committed to be able to work out our tourist programs and increase our tourist arrivals. Rafael Alunan talked about tourism and national security, cyber hacking, disputes, man made and natural disasters, terrorism, where we have to strengthen Local Government Local Autonomy and invest in capability building and long term plans, we have to transform ourselves to solve problems which affects the tourism industry. Mina Gabor was so passionate with her sustainable tourism advocacy, where she encouraged us to take note of the principles of nature protection, tourism with minimal impact on the environment, farm tourism and the promotion of rural tourism and the community based tourism, she said that tourism is a mode of inclusive growth because there is no other industry that has forward and backward linkages. WOW Philippines was a throwback presentation of  Red Cross Chairman, Richard J. Gordon as he  emphasized on the 4P’s  in tourism  such as PREDICT,PLAN, PREPARE and PRACTICE. He was the one who initiated the passage of RA 9593 or the National Tourism Act which he reminded the stakeholders and the tourism department to implement the said act.
The different tips of this brilliant personalities in tourism just opened our eyes to the realities of the industry today as we promote Negros Occidental Tourism to the World as we take part in increasing our arrivals and job opportunities. Congratulations to the Province of Negros Occidental for having been shortlisted in the Best Tourism Oriented Province in the Philippines, Best Tourism Week Celebration and Best Tourism Event for Panaad sa Negros in the Best Tourism Practices Awards 2015 by the ATOP and DOT.

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