Albay hosts Asean travel workshop

Legazpi City —- Albay Governor Joey Salceda hosted the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ first Tourism Workshop to come up with strategies to boost the travel sector.

About 50 tourism ministers and policy makers from the 10 member-countries, including 30 from the Philippines met here at the Oriental Hotel.

“Our goal is a resilient Asean through inclusive tourism,” Salceda said. “A resilient Asean is a categorical imperative for our nations and, collectively the regional imperative is a resilient Asean that can be sustained through inclusive tourism.”

Albay is a showcase of resiliency rising from devastations of calamities to become one of the country’s premier tourism destinations, he said.

Salceda said Bicol tourism grew 17 percent in 2011, surpassing the 14% national growth rate despite the cancellation of about 22% of airplane flights due to bad weather, five of them being typhoons.

The Southern Luzon International Airport is set to open on a plateau in Daraga town with a panoramic view of Mount Mayon, making the region more accessible to visitors.

Anchored on Albay’s climate adaptation thrust, Salceda said a relocation site will be established for disaster victims dovetailed into a an Agri-Ethno Ecotourism Village.

Salceda led the formation of the Albay-Masbate-Sorsogon Tourism Alliance targeting 650,000 foreign tourists in five years. It will tap the potentials of the new airport, South Luzon Railways, the proposed four-lane Naga-Legazpi freeway system, the upgraded Mayon International Convention Center along with the Albay Sports Center for the 2015 Palarong Pambansa.

The United Nations has declared Albay as its global model in mainstreaming climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in the local development process, including tourism.

Salceda said tourism relies on the aesthetic and nurturing function of nature as the springboard “to meet the goals of the Asean Tourism Strategic Plan by 2015 through responsible and sustainable tourism development.”

Sourced: manilastandardtoday