This, Tourism Undersecretary Oscar Palabyab said is the new niche in promoting tourist packages during the first national seminar on Community-Based Rural Tourism (CBRT) held at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel.
“If you have a story to tell, people will go there,” Palabyab added.
Department of Trade and Industry 7 Director Asteria Caberte cited the One Town, One Product (Otop) program. The DTI has linked with local arts and heritage councils in the region to learn about the local tales related to local delicacies, products and cultural practices. Tour guides can use the tales to promote local Otop products and services to tourists.
Dr. Mina Gabor, president of the Philippine Small and Medium Business Development Foundation (Philsmed), agreed with Palabyab that interesting stories help promote a tourist destination or product.
“Tourists will no longer want to bring home a souvenir with them. They want to have a story to tell when they get home,” she said.
‘Experiential trend’
In her talk on trend issues for rural tourism development, Gabor said that the new buzz phrase in the industry is “experiential trend in a slow lane.” This means that tourists would want to put more value in being able to experience the slow life, which is the kind of lifestyle at the countryside.
Being one of the representatives of an international trending team in tourism, Gabor said that based on the tourism trend report for 2008 and beyond, all indicators lead towards community tourism.
“It is no longer about a ‘cement jungle’ when you talk about mega-trends but it is going back to basics,” Gabor said.
Cement jungles refer to big facilities or infrastructure, which used to be the “in-thing” in the tourism sector.
When asked if the country is ready to participate in this development, Gabor said that what needs to be done is to prepare the people on how to handle the CBRTs. This is what Department of Tourism (DOT) aims to do by holding the CBRT seminar.
Although the country needed more time to develop community-based tourism, Gabor said that “sometimes we have to wait for the right time.”
Economic benefits
In the seminar, which culminates today, participants also pointed out that CBRTs should instill among the locals a sense of pride and love for their own place. Aside from this, stakeholders in CBRTs should also benefit economically.
If the CBRTs can achieve these, local residents would willingly protect the resources in their area, seminar speakers agreed.
The DOT has also invited resource speakers from Nepal who had successfully created eco-tourism campaigns by maximizing on the resources available to them.
Rajendra Narsingh Suwal, vice-president of the KGH group of hotels, resorts and travel based in Nepal, presented to the convention the efforts being done by the Nepalese Government to promote tourism in Nepal.
He said Nepal’s rough terrain is appropriate for several recreational and adventure tourism packages that includes wildlife farming, bird watching, safaris, rough trail trekking, paragliding and white water rafting.
The CBRT seminar is held in cooperation with Philsmed, the Asian Productivity Organization in Japan, the Development Academy of the Philippines and the Philippine Convention and Visitors Corporation. (DME)
