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Members of the Technical Working Group (TWG) for the Integrated Area Development (IAD) program of Cebu’s seventh congressional district recently learned what it takes to develop and manage a community-based sustainable tourism site.
Participants started the activity with a presentation at the Farmhouse by Shane Navarro, the tourism officer of the Municipality of Aloguinsan, on the role of the municipality in developing the Bojo River site and capacitating the local people’s organization to manage and sustain the tourism operations.
After a brief tour of the organic farming practices of the demo farm, the participants proceeded to the Bojo River site. Jamaila Alvarado, a founding member and current treasurer of the award-winning people’s organization Bojo River Ecotourism Association (BAETAS), shared the benefits that her membership in BAETAS has provided her and her family. Despite the many months of intensive training and the challenges of having to care for her three young children, she shared that the benefits of her membership in BAETAS go beyond additional household income. Because of the organization’s success, she has been invited to share her experience in both domestic and international forums on sustainable tourism.
TWG members engaged with the speakers to gain greater insight into how similar models of community-based sustainable tourism could be implemented within their localities. Several emerging sites have already been identified in previous workshops. The tourism officers plan to work with the Provincial Tourism Office for technical support to develop additional tourism sites within their LGUs that will follow the sustainable tourism model.
Following the BAETAS presentation, participants discussed what they found to be the best practices of the tourism sites and how they could apply it within their localities’ tourism sites. The TWG also witnessed a demonstration on how to weave the puso and banig before proceeding to the river tour.
The Integrated Area Development Program of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI-IAD) provides Local Government Units (LGUs) with technical assistance towards socioeconomic development.
