City tourism office to come up with tourism calendar of events
The City Tourism Office is closely coordinating with the Department of Tourism (DoT) in coming up with tourism calendar of events for Iloilo City for the whole year round aside from its present two festival events.
City Tourism Officer Benito Jimena said they want to come up with tourism calendar of events in promoting Iloilo City. The Dinagyang Festival and Paraw Regatta are only seasonal attractions.
The century old houses and churches in the city are among the tourist attractions currently available to the visiting tourists. However, such attraction could not be called as “distinctively” Ilonggo. Century old and historic churches and houses can also be found in other places in the country, said Jimena.
He said there are so many things that should be done in the city to further improve its tourism industry. The tourism office must come up with a plan to sell Iloilo City other than just the Dinagyang and Paraw Regatta.
Dinagyang Festival is already in the hall of fame after it was chosen as the best tourism event in the country for the third consecutive year by the Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines (ATOP) in the country. Paraw Regatta was also named as the second best tourism event in the country in 2007.
Jimena cited that in one of the areas in the country, the copra making is part of their tourism promotion program. Nothing is spectacular on the copra-making and yet they were able to include it in their tourism initiatives in attracting tourists. The tour guide was able to catch the attention of the visiting tourist because of the stories relative to copra-making.
The tourism calendar of events will serve as “gateway” not only to Iloilo City. It will include the neighboring towns in the city and even the province of Guimaras. The tourism office wants to establish a network with the members of the Metro Iloilo Guimaras Economic Development Council (MIGEDC), said Jimena.
Initially, the city tourism office wants to other MIGEDC member towns to participate in the food festival in next year’s Dinagyang Festival. There should be an area purposely where native cuisines of other towns are available. Several towns in Iloilo have their distinct delicacies such as tinuom, binakol and buko pie. They have their own style in cooking that satisfies the palate of both the local and foreign visitors.
By Maricar M. Calubiran
The News Today
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A calendar of events is a great idea. It should include a broad range of information because tourists (and residents) have diverse interests. We hope it will especially include events at the Iloilo’s colleges and universities as well as traditional tourism fare such as festivals.
yeah I agree.