Exciting events set for Baguio HRT Weekend

By Dexter A. See 

BAGUIO CITY – The Hotel and Restaurant Association of Baguio (HRAB) lined up various crowd-drawing events to celebrate the 15th edition of the Hotel and Restaurant Tourism (HRT) Weekend in the city within the coming weeks.

On Sept. 30, candidates for the Search for Mr. and Ms. HRAB will be participating in the swim wear competition followed by their presentation to the media for the Search for the Darling of the Press.

The annual HRT Weekend is an institutionalized private sector-led crowd-drawing event to help the city government market Baguio city as among the major tourist destinations that gives importance to the hospitality industry.

On Oct. 6, residents and visitors will be given a treat with the parading of the projected 7.6-km long Baguio longanisa along the whole stretch of Session road after which the same will be offered to the public, either cooked or raw, on a discounted price.

The 3rd staging of the Longest Baguio Longanisa is being done in partnership with MB Alabanza, a bonafide member of the HRAB, which successfully offered to the public the first longest longanisa that was about 3.5 kilometers long and the second edition of the same which was over 6 kilometers long.

The Coronation Night for the Search for Mr. and Ms. HRAB is scheduled on October 7, 2019 at the Cordillera Convention Hall of the Baguio Country Club with this year’s winners becoming the ambassador and ambassadress of Baguio City on hospitality and culinary, among other aspects of the local tourism industry.

On Oct. 10-12, 2019 hospitality industry students and professionals will be competing in events on the various aspects of the industry to be held in different establishments of HRAB members for them to be able to showcase their talents, skills and knowledge of the trade.

For this year, organizers decided to divide the competitions into two categories, the student and professional categories, to bring out the best in the participants who will be competing against standards of the industry.

Initially, there will be 28 competitions that have been lined up for the students while the professionals will be competing in 26 events prepared by the organizers of the annual HRT Weekend in the city.

HRAB officials disclosed there are already 30 schools that confirmed their participation in the different competitions while there are still 10 hospitality establishments that signified their intention to join the competitions for the professional category.

Earlier, the HRAB screened the candidates for this year’s Search for Mr. and Ms. HRAB during the preliminary auditions conducted to select the best among the best entries from the different participating higher education institutions in the different parts of the city.

For the past years, HRT Weekend has been one of the well-attended hospitality and culinary events outside the National Capital Region with the rapidly increasing number of participants coming from outside the city.