THE ISLAND Garden City of Samal (IGACoS) and Tagum City are among the top five finalists of the National Tourism Champion Challenge (TCC) under the Mindanao cluster, organized by the Department of Tourism.
Launched last February, the TCC aims to make tourism an economic driver of the country, as well as to incentivize the tourism development of cities and municipalities in the Philippines.
Among the fifteen chosen local government units (LGUs) nationwide, and the top five in each of the island clusters, the included provinces were also Davao City, Surigao, and Basilan.
Noel Daquioag, Davao del Norte provincial tourism officer, said the chosen provinces will “undergo capability-building as well as enhancement of technical works of different projects.”
“I may not have read yet the proposals of Davao City, Surigao, and Basilan, but all the components of the sustainable system were in those proposals that have been submitted by IGACoS and Tagum City,” Daquioag said.
For Tagum City, Daquioag shared that the province needs to enhance its tourism circuit, particularly Tagum’s revived river cruise where Kagan culture and traditions could be seen, in collaboration with the national funding and the province’s LGU, which goes well with the Tourism Development Plan’s seventh agenda that points “tourism development should be collaborative.”
The proposed mangrove boardwalk and gallery in Sanipaan, IGACoS, otherwise known as “the vanishing island,” aims also to enhance traveler’s experience as visitors, to further delve into sustainability and forging partnerships.
Daquioag also urged LGUs to support TCC as this will greatly impact the province’s economic growth, as one of the community’s challenges is that “resources are meager”.
Among the five shortlisted LGUs, the province will be given a reward of P20 million for the first prize, P15 million for the second, followed by P10 million, P8 million, and P7 million for the fifth prize.
In collaboration with the Tourism Infrastructure Enterprise Zone Authority, the reward is utilized for the city’s infrastructure projects once the ranking is announced.
