Waking up to the sounds of the farm – the crow of the roosters, the cluck of the chickens, and the bleating of other farm animals. Opening your window and feeling the fresh morning breeze on your face. Smelling a home-cooked breakfast made with ingredients from the farm. Picking your own produce from the surrounding fruit trees and vegetable plots.
All of these experiences can now be enjoyed by everyone through green tourism circuits and tours, such as those being developed by tourism industry stakeholders in the Cordillera region, spearheaded by the Department of Tourism – Cordillera Administrative Region.
What is Green Tourism?
Green tourism was originally defined in the 1980s as “small-scale tourism which involves visiting natural areas while minimizing environmental impacts.” Later on, it became interchangeable with “eco-tourism” and “nature tourism.” (Pintassilgo P. (2016) Green tourism. In: Jafari J., Xiao H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Tourism. Springer, Cham.)
International organizations such as the World Tourism Organization have expanded the concept to sustainable tourism which is defined as tourism that “minimizes the costs and maximizes the benefits of tourism for natural environments and local communities and can be carried out indefinitely without harming the resources on which it depends.”
The DOT Cordillera Administrative Region office sees the value of developing green tourism circuits, especially as the tourism sector in the region is struggling to bounce back and recover from the tremendous economic impact brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. And with the department putting more emphasis on promoting domestic tourism for 2021, green tours are becoming a priority area for development.
Developing a Green Tourism Circuit
On July 13 and 14, DOT-CAR hosted a Dry Run of a Green Tourism Circuit within the Baguio-La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba-Tublay (BLISTT) area. The dry run showcased two farm tourism destinations, namely the Benguet Agro-Eco Farm in Sablan, and the UM-A Farm in Tuba. Participants in the dry run included accredited tour operators, chefs, LGU and partner agencies.
The dry run itinerary is intended to showcase the range of activities that can be arranged as part of the Green Tour. At the Benguet Agro-Eco Farm, located at Bulala, Sablan, participants enjoyed the experience of a Canao lunch, with food cooked the way it is traditionally cooked during a community gathering. Apart from savoring good food, guests also get a glimpse of how Cordillerans usually come together for different reasons, all of which are in order to give thanks for the blessings that have been bestowed on them by Kabunian.
After lunch, the next activity gave the participants first-hand experience on-farm foraging, where they went around the farm and picked fruits and vegetables available for picking. This activity intends to educate visitors on where our food comes from so that they get a better appreciation of the role of our farmers. Dinner time featured a feast that was not only delicious but more importantly was made from ingredients sourced mainly from the farm, from native chickens to local vegetables.
One of the main events for this leg of the tour is the demonstration of how traditional Kini-ing is made. Kini-ing is preserved meat that is made through smoking over a woodfire. Smoking is considered to be one of the traditional means of preserving meat by the Cordillerans, especially during the early days. After this once-in-a-lifetime demonstration, guests have the option to stay around a warm bonfire and do some stargazing. Or perhaps try and spot some fireflies flitting among the trees. All of this is possible especially if the weather cooperates.
A good night’s rest is in store for guests in the farm’s lodging. The next day after breakfast, a farm tour was conducted, along with a “pick and pay” activity which allows visitors to pick and pay for the produce they would like to bring home.
The rest of the second day of the tour is spent at UM-A Farm, located at Km. 9, Asin Road, Tadiangan, Tuba. UM-A is a newly opened destination that features a farm and a restaurant that practices farm-to-table culinary experiences.
And the food they served reflected just that. For snacks, they prepared a turon made of lakatan bananas which were abundant in their farm. For lunch, there were two kinds of salads (vegetable and fruit), a vegetarian sisig made from banana hearts, grilled fish, and a chicken tinola made with native chickens and coconut juice.
After a hearty lunch, the group went for another pick and pay activity where they gathered bananas from the farm.
This Green Tourism Circuit is one of the many tours that the DOT-CAR would like to develop and launch to the traveling public soon. It hopes to create better opportunities for tourism stakeholders such as travel and tour operators and of course, the farm-owners and farmers themselves for economic recovery.