2 Bicol tourism sites to get boost from USAID

LEGAZPI CITY — Two towns in Bicol which are favorites of tourists have been included in a new anti-poverty project under the National Tourism Development Plan.
Named as first priority target for the “One-Step Project” are the historic town of Daraga, Albay, and the scenic coastal town of Donsol, Sorsogon, the region’s ecotourism wonders that both play important roles in the Catanduanes-Albay-Masbate-Sorsogon Tourism Alliance (CAlMaSorTA), the tourism road map for Bicol.

Conceptualized by Albay Gov. Joey Salceda and put in place by the Regional Development Council (RDC) that he heads as chair, CAlMaSorTA is the region’s tourism road map that aims to achieve development not only in mainland Bicol but also in the island provinces of Catanduanes and Masbate.
The alliance has set a more integrated and comprehensive promotion strategy to market the potentials of the regional tourism industry that is eyeing one million foreign tourist arrivals by year 2016.
In 2012, the region was able to realize some 700,000 arrivals, records of the regional tourism office say.
Daraga and Donsol are among the most tourist-visited places in Bicol with the former, sitting below the southern slopes of the majestic Mt. Mayon, as home to the world-famous Cagsawa Ruins and the centuries-old church of the Nuestra Señora de la Porteria.
The latter, located along the coastline of Ticao Pass some 30 kilometers southwest of this city, is known as the Whale Shark Capital of the World and site of the seasonal whale shark interactions that draws over 50,000 foreign and domestic tourists every year.
Both municipalities, although categorized as first class based on the local governments’ earning capability averaging more than P55 million annually, are listed by the National Statistical Coordination Board to be with high poverty incidences.
The NSCB list of poverty incidence is based on the prevailing proportion of families with per capita income/expenditure less than the per capita poverty threshold to the total number of families.
And since tourism has been identified as a major economic driver to spur job creation, household income, local government revenue generation and to spread the benefits of development to the countryside, these two towns have been identified into the “One Step Project,” Salceda over the weekend said.
“This is a convergence program that seeks to improve the lives of the poor with more direct interventions through tourism,” he said.
It is a step to include the poor at the start of the development process and integrate communities, including but not limited to the beneficiaries of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), in the tourism value chain.
Being implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), 4Ps is the government’s poverty reduction and social development strategy that provides cash subsidy through Conditional Cash Transfer to extremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education — particularly of children aged 0-14.
One Step Project was recently put in place as another poverty-alleviation initiative of the administration of Pres. Benigno S. Aquino III through a partnership with the DSWD and the United States Agency for International Development for a convergence program aimed at improving the lives of the poor.
Under this partnership, the DSWD, through its Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP), will help the Department of Tourism (DOT) translate the National Tourism Development Plan into a community-driven eco-tourism development plan to ensure inclusive economic growth.
The DSWD SLP provides opportunities to its underprivileged participants to be self-reliant by engaging in income-generating activities, according to its regional director for Bicol Arnel Garcia.
“This project provides institutional links to ensure effective implementation. It is providing the poor employment and business opportunities with long-term benefits,” Garcia said.
Salceda said Daraga and Donsol have been officially nominated into the project unanimously by DOT Regional Director Maria Ong- Ravanilla, Garcia, National Economic Development Authority Regional Director Romeo Escandor and himself as RDC chair.
“The two were chosen as they offer the most potential for tourism to reduce poverty — for example, Daraga has 8,000 4Ps beneficiaries but has iconic touristic endowments. Projects have been configured to ensure that tourism will reduce poverty by creating jobs, enterprises and incomes,” the Albay governor said.
These projects, in the case of Daraga, include infrastructures such as the road to Nabasan Caves, improvement of tourist facilities at the Cagsawa Ruins Park, Budiao Ruins site development and refurbishing of the Nuestra Señora de la Porteria church, he said.
Trainings on tour-guiding and product packaging as well as destination marketing promotion by way of participation in travel markets, both domestic and international, will also be provided under the One Step Project that constitutes a robust and comprehensive effort of the PNoy administration to ensure inclusive tourism growth, according to Salceda.
All projects start next month, he added.