BAYAMBANG, Pangasinan — This town was adjudged grand champion in the best tourism month or week celebration 2017 – municipality category at the Pearl Awards of the Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines and the Department of Tourism (ATOP-DOT).
“There was no monetary prize but for us, it’s our pride for the name of our municipality was acknowledged in this award,” he said in an interview Monday.
Saygo, together with winners in other categories, received the award during the 19th ATOP-DOT National Convention held in Cagayan De Oro, Misamis Oriental on October 6.
“The winners of last year’s entry were awarded this year,” he said.
Saygo admitted that the tourism week nationwide celebration last year took place for the first time in the town with the theme “Tourism: Sustainable Tool for Development”.
“The administration of Mayor Cezar Quiambao also believes in the given theme that indeed tourism will help boost development. However, we were faced with the fact that our town has no attractions such as mountains or beaches, so we came up with activities to draw people,” he explained.
Since tourism celebrations in the towns and cities in the country last year were judged based on sustainability, Saygo said Bayambang claimed that theirs were sustainable among the other municipalities thus, placing them as grand champion.
“We had institutionalized some of our activities such as the Sing-Capital securing sustainability through legislations so that even if administrations change, these tourism activities will continue,” he noted.
He further said they also focused on partnering with the Department of Education (DepEd), tapping it to incorporate in its curriculum the cultural maps and other activities.
“This is to teach the children so that they will be aware of the town’s culture and other things related to tourism in our town,” Saygo said.
