Caraga tourism stakeholders meet to plan for the sector

By Arcily C. Gonzaga

BUTUAN CITY, Sept. 26 - "Let's talk tourism, Caraga tourism."

This is what brought together some 55 participants from the five provinces of Caraga last September 18 and 19.

At the end of the two-day session, participants were able to provide further inputs to the draft provincial tourism roadmaps. The outputs outlined the state of the sector, the identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, the industry's vision, mission, goals and targets as well as the proposed strategies and timelines to pursue these.

Collectively, the group was also able to validate and finalize the proposed Caraga Tourism Roadmap in support of the on-going review and localization initiatives for the National Tourism Development Plan 2013-2016.  As explained by the local office of Department of Tourism (DOT), the plan needs to be cascaded in the regions and requires the active and collaborative actions from the private sector.

The two-day activity was funded by the GIZ-Conflict Sensitive Resource Management (COSERAM) Program via its partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-Caraga under the Industry Cluster Assistance for Regional Economic Development or ICARE.

GIZ-COSERAM sponsored a tourism value chain planning workshop earlier this year in Siargao Island where the first drafts were formulated.

The activity also allowed the stakeholders to enhance their plans with the inputs from the "Green Economic Development" and "Greening the Tourism Value Chain" – shared by another GIZ program currently being implemented in the Visayas – the GIZ-DTI Promotion of Green Economic Development (ProGED).

Participants to the activity, which was held at the Goat2geder Hotel and Restaurant, include private sector representatives from the accommodation, restaurants, health and wellness, tour operators and other tourism-related businesses or subsectors, business chambers, tourism officers from the local government units, and government functionaries from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, National Economic Development Authority, DOT and DTI. (NCLM/DTI-13/PIA-Caraga)