Tourism players urged to reinvigorate industry

DAVAO DEL NORTE -- Governor Rodolfo del Rosario appealed to tourism players to help reinvigorate the province's tourism industry.

In a focus group discussion among tourism stakeholders recently, assistant provincial administrator Romulo Tagalo said the governor wanted to strengthen the tourism industry of the province.

"The governor is mindful of the marching order of the President to increase domestic tourist arrivals to 35 million and international arrivals to 10 million," said Tagalo. "We would like to transform that target into local targets as well."

In so doing, the province is adopting the three strategic directions set forth in the National Tourism Development Plan 2011-2016 (NTDP) pertaining to the development of competitive tourist products and destinations; market access, connectivity and destination infrastructure; and institutional governance and human resources.

As a first step, Tagalo said the provincial government gathered all tourism officers to study the NTDP.

Aside from the NTDP, the governor sent a research team from UM Tagum College to conduct a study that shall also keep the provincial government guided in pursuing its objectives for tourism.

"More than a requirement under the Local Governance Performance Management System, we need that (study) as our baseline because policy decisions require data," Tagalo said, "and we want to know where we are now."

Also as an offshoot of the whole reinvigoration plan was the FGD during which Tagalo revealed the desire of the governor to let the private sector lead the industry.

As what Department of Tourism-Davao Director Art Boncato Jr. put it during the FGD, "the private sector is basically the one making tourism work."

But he also underscored the crucial role of provincial and local governments.

"Tourism is really a private sector thing," Boncato said, "but it is also our (the government) business to make that happen for the private sector."

Heeding the call of the governor, the FGD participants agreed to revive the provincial tourism council. They are set to elect new set of officers on January 29.

Also set this year are projects intended to develop the three new tourism sites: Madgao River in Asuncion, Battle of Ising shrine in Carmen, and Casilac Falls in New Corella.