TO sustain its status among Northern Mindanao’s top tourist destinations, Cagayan de Oro City must craft a five-year tourism master plan, City Hall’s tourism chief said.
During the Nov. 7 executive budget hearing held by the 20th City Council at one of the city’s hotels, City Tourism, and Cultural Affairs Office chief Rico Libre urged local legislators to pass a resolution for the five-year tourism master plan to identify which projects would be prioritized for implementation.
“There are 42 classifications of tourism….The trend in Philippine tourism nowadays is on health-wellness, business, and educational tourism…local governments like the provinces of Cebu and Bohol and Davao City are kept busy conducting trainings and providing assistance to their stakeholders (to boost their tourism),” Libre told the council.
While saying that river tourism remains a priority due to the city’s white water rafting program, Libre said they need to develop the various white water rafting stations.
“As mentioned by Councilor (Jay Roa) Pascual we also need to develop tourism in our hinterland or mountain barangays as additional sites (for our visitors),” Libre said.
He also said the city needs to develop eco-cultural tourism with emphasis on the city’s lumad community.
“Particularly the Higa-noon tribes because we can learn so much from their culture (which needs to be preserved and promoted by the city) and they’re also a part of the city’s rich cultural heritage,” Libre said.
The City Tourism Office 2023 budget stands at P31.203 million in 2023. Based on data from the City Budget Office, about P1.2 million was allocated for eco-tourism livelihood, particularly in the city’s hinterland barangays.
For this year’s Higalaay Festival held last August, the office spent P5 million while it spent P1 million for the city’s tourism expos and exhibitions held in Manila. For next year, the City Tourism and Cultural Affairs Office budget is pegged at P48,927,867. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)
