LOCAL government units in Benguet are urged to establish tourism industry potentials in their locality.
Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong continuous to encourage local government officials of the Baguio-La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba and Tublay (BLISTT) the need to invest in land properties within their area to be used for tourism activities.
“During our last meeting with the BLISTT last December, I asked the mayors for all of us to have a tourism enterprise so that visitors going to Baguio will just have to visit the city but stay in their areas under BLISTT which would help decongest Baguio City in a big way,” Magalong said.
Magalong recommended to members of BLISTT to invite investors willing to build hotels to support their tourism industry.
“What they were telling us during that meeting was that there were no interested investors because it was not financially viable. I can only do so much as Baguio City Mayor and at the same time the head of chairman of BLISTT because at the end of the day, it will still be up to the mayors,” the BLISTT chairman stated.
Magalong said he is currently inviting investors within the BLISTT area as he sees the need to help them develop their investment potentials and sustain their growth.
“We all need to be aggressive in inviting investors which is why I requested and emphasized to them that we all have to invest in land or conduct land banking like what we are currently doing in Baguio. We have actually bought a seven hectare land area in the city aside from conducting an inventory of lands in the city, we are also looking at sixty properties in the city which have gone stale but have business potentials,” the mayor added.