Kiangan sets first tourism congress

KIANGAN, Ifugao --  In celebration of the last week of September as National Tourism Week, the municipal government of this town will hold its First Tourism Congress on September 26-28.

With the theme “Community-Based Tourism: Economic and Cultural Development Through Private-Public Partnership,” the three -day event will serve as a venue to address the challenges that the municipal government faces in its tourism industry development programs and efforts such as involving all sectors in planning and decision-making, how to balance various participants during community consultation meetings and to find opportunities for the improvement of tourism industry in the locality.

The activities for the congress include parade, forum-workshops, trade and food fairs and an Entertainment Night in which all interested participants are invited and welcomed to join.

It will open on Sept. 26 with a parade to be participated by all the barangays and various sectors and stakeholders. 

The forum-workshops   will cover    topics that include   Destination Management, Opening Gateways for Tourism Development, Agoda and Social Media-Good Partners in Marketing and Good Practices on Tourism Safety, The Ifugao Tourism Value Chain, Experiencing Cultural Heritage and Indigenous Tourism, It’s More in Ifugao Culinary Delights and Experiencing Ifugao through Bed and Breakfast, and Tourism Investments for the 3-Year Tourism Plan of the town.

There will also be a tour around the town’s tourist destination sites such as the IPED Center, Peace Museum, Kiangan World War II Memorial Shrine, Bae Rice Terraces and the legendary Ambuaya Lake.

The activity is part of the eco-cultural tourism program initiated in 2006 that resulted in the enactment of an ordinance to support and allocate funds for tourism infrastructures and community training programs upon the realization of the social and economic benefits of community-based tourism development. This,  however, largely depends on the active involvement of all sectors in the locality to develop a sense of ownership to support the tourism program through planning workshops and consultation meetings.

The Department of Tourism showed strong support to this endeavor by aggressively promoting the products and encouraging foreign and domestic tourists to visit the area. (JDP/DBC- PIA CAR, Ifugao)