Encouraging the participants of the Seminar Workshop on Eco-Tourism Trade and Industry, Tourist Safety and Security to strategize their tourism promotion efforts, Kalinga Governor Floydelia Diasen said that Kalinga as a destination has much better goods to offer compared to other destinations in the country.
Sharing her experiences in Camiguin as a tourist, she disclosed that what really prompted her to visit the place was the packaging in the brochure. “The packaging was so attractive that you really want to see their sites,” she said adding that the Kalinga with its vast potentials has a better stand.
She then suggested that the packaging should include something mysterious about the place that would rouse the curiosity of the people to come and see it.
Citing some unique sites in the province, she said that aside from its natural beauty, Kalinga has several interesting things seen only in the province like the Sleeping Beauty of Tinglayan, culture and traditions that are still being practiced by the people and several others.
“We have a very rich tourism potential which we should be proud of, that we could harness to make it as a source of income,” she said stressing that to do this, it is just a matter of making the people appreciate these potentials.
“It is sad to note that we could not even appreciate what we have in the province since we are so engrossed with the unfortunate situations happening here,” she expressed.
In her discourse, the governor suggested that to make a change, the participants composing of planners, tourism officers and law enforcers, should advocate and direct the attitude of the people towards the development of the province’s eco-tourism industry.
“It is important that we showcase the real Kalinga, its culture, ecology and the things unique in our place,” the lady governor said underscoring that on e way of doing this is to “change the definition of Kalinga from head hunters to ‘Kalinga a caring and safe community,’” quoting that Kalinga in tagalong means ‘care’.
“As a people I know that we are better with rich customs and traditions that we could be proud of,” she said.
But all of this gets lost once a visitor experiences something unfortunate in the province she said urging government planners to sit down to discuss and plan with the people and all sectors to come up with a consolidated tourism effort that would turn and make ‘Kalinga as an eco- tourism destination’.
Meanwhile in her lecture on Eco-Tourism Development, Miss Natividad Sugguiyao, founder and owner of the only successful and world known tourism outfit in the province – the Chico River Quest Inc. said that the industry would positively boom and eventually at par to other world class provinces.
Taking such positive outlook on the province’s tourism industry, Miss Sugguiyao said that this could be possible if we only learn to appreciate and enhance what we have and be positive about it.
“Kalinga as a tourism destination basically has everything with its vast natural resources and rich culture,” she said adding that “because we have so much tourism assets in the province, we could not appreciation it.”
“The development of the industry should start from us,” she underscored.
Pointing out to the issue on peace and order in the province, she said that “sometimes the problems on peace and order are just imagined.”
Considering she said that the problems on peace in the province are isolated cases “why can’t we just say that our province is generally peaceful?” she said disclosing that as a proof, she had been entertaining ‘high end’ tourists and visitors in the province for the past years and they have left the province satisfied and wanting to come again. (ggd)