CEBU, Philippines - How the Municipality of San Francisco of the Camotes group of islands became an eco-tourism destination and a United Nations Sasakawa awardee was shared yesterday before delegates of the 12th East Asia Inter-Regional Tourism Forum (EATOF).
That, as Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia welcomed delegates from 12 countries in yesterday’s start of the three-day event at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).
San Francisco Vice Mayor Alfredo Arquillano spoke before the Academic, Trade, Tourism and Investment (ATTI) Forum, which was introduced in Cebu as the newest feature of the 12-year of existence of EATOF.
The ATTI forum is a venue for EATOF members to present best practices and share success stories in terms of tourism, trade and other economic strategies.
Arquillano emphasized how, by empowering their citizens, the delivery of services has been maximized and a consciousness of ecological preservation and unity among its people has been developed.
San Francisco was awarded the prestigious 2011 United Nations Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva on May 14.
Arquillano explained that the town’s “purok system” has propelled it to become resilient, utilizing indigenous knowledge to disseminate critical information and risk assessment, waste segregation, delivery of health services, and related activities at the household level.
The UN Sasakawa Award recognizes excellence in reducing disaster risk. Winners were selected among numerous nominees from around the world through an intensive judging process.
For 2011, the focus of the award was on local action in line with the UN’s “Making Cities Resilient” Campaign.
Organizers further explained that the criteria for the award emphasized sustainability of projects despite resource constraints, and putting people first.
Ten out of the 12 member-provinces sent their delegation to this year’s EATOF, which has the theme “The New Decade of Enduring Cooperation and Partnership.”
Among the foreign governors present were Moonson Choi of Gangwon, Korea; Enkhbat Tsedevdorj of Tuv, Mongolia; and the Deputy Governor of Siem Reap, Cambodia, Bun Tharith. The delegation from Luang Prabang, Laos and Quang Ninh, Vietnam were headed by their respective vice governors while the other-member provinces were represented by their tourism officials.
Garcia, in her speech, said that opening the ATTI forum is a step further to make their partnership “real, working, and workable.”
“On its 12th year, EATOF has evolved from that simple idea into a living and working network of active partners drawing upon, and sharing each other’s strengths – a model of international cooperation in the push for tourism,” Garcia said.
The TravelMart, an exhibit of the different tourist attractions of the member-provinces, was formally opened with a ceremonial ribbon cutting by the heads of delegation. This exhibit will be open for public viewing on September 16.
“Here today, we not only share meaningful lessons from each of our own efforts to push the richly diverse aspects of tourism. More importantly, this is a forum where the key tourism players from each of our provinces can form meaningful partnerships that can only work towards our mutual benefit, and the further strengthening of EATOF,” the governor added.
EATOF, which was organized in Korea in 1999, aims to promote inter-regional cooperation. It is one of the biggest gatherings of tourism stakeholders in the East Asia Region. –/JPM (FREEMAN)