2nd Philippine Ecotourism 101 a huge success

The second Philippine Ecotourism 101 held March 3 & 4, 2016 at Pines View Hotel in Baguio City was attended by 91 delegates from 41 organizations. Participants were composed of representatives from local government units, provincial government offices, tourism councils, DOT and the private sector. There were delegates coming from all over the country and surprisingly, a huge chunk were from Mindanao.

Several responded with positive feedback and expressed their appreciation of the tools, concepts and methodologies that they learned from the training. Attendees also enjoyed networking with others who are as keen to learn about ecotourism to develop or improve products in their respective areas.

Tourism planning consultants Louie and Chen Mencias covered a variety of topics including ecotourism concepts, framework and tools for site selection, heritage mapping, basics on product development, enterprise development and destination management. They also featured case studies of Taal Volcano Protected Landscape and Batanes Protected Landscape and Seascape.

Helen A. Cutillar, the tourism officer of Sagay City in Negros Occidental, also presented and shared what they have done in Sagay Marine reserve, one of the model ecotourism sites in the Philippines. She imparted their strategies, plans, and most importantly, what they have learned over the years.

Towards the end of the seminar, attendees signed a pledge wall to signify their promise to protect our environment, to be responsible stewards of our natural destinations and to promote responsible and sustainable tourism.

All in all, it was a successful and enriching event. You can view the photos of the event below.

Our team would like to thank our main partners, Bluewater Consultancy and Ecotourism Philippines, the Department of Tourism – Cordillera Administrative Region, Aquamundo, Conquer and EPIC Philippines.

We will be holding another Philippine Ecotourism 101 training soon. To be updated of upcoming seminars, please sign-up to receive our newsletters here or follow us on Facebook here.

If you would like to get in touch with our speakers, please email us at sui.eventspro@gmail.com