LAST week, the three-day tourism branding workshop with the Department of Tourism-CAR led to the adoption of a new tourism brand for the region: “Find yourself in the Cordillera”. The brand essence found the way to the core of it all: the “chain of mountains or mountain ranges” (Cordillera); embodying the highs and lows of our lives, the struggles of our climbs...our journey to find the meaning of our existence.
The DOT-CAR and its consultants together with the Cordillera Tourism Officers and stakeholders (from the Academe, Tour Operators, and other organizations) arrived at the said brand by considering the common features of each Cordillera provinces. The workshop’s directions presented a shared value to Agri-Eco tourism assets – the rich agricultural gifts like vegetables, strawberries, coffee, etc., and ecological assets like, of course our mountains, caves, rivers, falls, and others. These wonders and its relationship to its indigenous caretakers developed a system of interaction – a unique culture and set of values which makes us the privileged “mountain people” of the country. But of course, it is still the ‘mountains’ that bind us all.
There is clarity when you are at the summit of our mountains. There is that humbling and profound understanding after that long climb when you see things from a distant high ground – every problem, frustration, and struggle become miniscule...insignificant. In our mountains, aside from earning our place close to God, we experience the rich harvest of the earth’s bounties – partaking on the majestic produce as descendants from the heavens. In our mountains, we receive brilliant stories from the tall trees, the mighty waters, and whispers of the cold breeze. In our mountains, we lose our arrogance and conceitedness in the face of the vastness of what we try to grasp – the clouds, forests, of course, the land which will ultimately outgrow us. In the mountains, we find ourselves.
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La Trinidad, Benguet, is Top 4 in Economic Dynamism (for 1st-2nd class Municipalities), and Top 18 for the over-all ranking for the most competitive Local Government Units in the whole country and among more than a thousand entries (despite our need for better documentation of our submissions), as declared during the recently held Regional Competitive Summit at Manila. Perhaps, even without internalizing the technical indicators for the awards, the steady growth of the number of banks in the town loudly expresses the encouraging local economic drive of the Benguet capital town. When there are banks, of course there is money.
“Doesn’t look like it” offered a friend from Manila, “Your town is still rural in my point of view”, he added. It would take a farmer who is driving a cabbage-loaded expensive pick-up to prove him wrong. From time to time, tourists still shake their heads in disbelief when I tell them that the huge houses they see in Bahong are owned by flower farmers. It had happened hundreds of years before, when our ancestors first traded their gold with salt – despite being naked.
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The 2018 La Trinidad Tourism Week will be held on September 24-27 featuring tourism stakeholders’ meetings, tourism product development/ promotions and exhibits, community gathering, familiarization tour, and a concert. The celebration coincides with the World Tourism Day with the theme “Tourism and the Digital Transformation”.