LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Benguet Caretaker Congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Go Yap tapped the services of a former international beauty queen to serve as the province’s tourism ambassadress to aggressively promote the different tourist destinations around Benguet as part of the government’s overall efforts to revive the vibrance of the local tourism industry.
However, Yap, who chairs the powerful committee on appropriations, declined to divulge the identity of the province’s new tourism ambassadress until such time that issues and concerns on the prevailing community quarantine shall have been properly addressed and approved by the inter-agency task force for the management of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
He stated that he lined up a series of grand activities in the province with the support of the tourism ambassadress to help in aggressively promoting the province’s tourism industry and to entice domestic visitors to visit the historic and scenic tourist destinations in the different municipalities.
Congressman Yap disclosed that all the programs and activities promoting the province’s tourism industry had already been transmitted to the inter-agency task force on the management of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases for approval before the same will be rolled out to allow the possible revival of the vibrance of the local tourism industry that was heavily impacted by the prevailing community quarantine to combat the spread of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
According to him, in his visits to the different parts of the province over the past several months, he discovered the numerous scenic destinations worthy of spending a break, especially for domestic visitors wanting to visit places to be able to shrug off the serious negative effect of the community quarantine.
Aside from improving the state of infrastructure and agriculture in the different parts of the province, Congressman Yap claimed it is also important for concerned government agencies and the provincial and municipal governments to work together in aggressively promoting the province’s ecotourism industry because of the scenic destinations worthy of visits.
Among the potential ecotourist destinations in the different parts of the province include the vegetable terraces, flower gardens, strawberry farms, hot springs, trekking sites, waterfalls, caves, arts and culture hubs, swimming sites, caves, and sulfur springs.
The lawmaker pointed out he wants Benguet to have its own distinct identity as a producer of agricultural crops being sold in the different parts of the country and as a premier tourist destination in the country because of its vast track of natural resources that serve as the province’s asset that entice people to make the province as their must-see destination when in the north.
Yap added Benguet will also be hosting one of the major beauty pageants to be held in the country anytime time this month as the same is still subject to the approval of the inter-agency task force on the management of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases to avoid any unnecessary event that might derail the conduct of one of the province’s tourism come on activities. By HENT