Catbalogan legislators
approve tourism code
By LAIMINH S. MABULAY
January
26, 2011
CATBALOGAN, Samar –
The Sangguniang Panlungsod passed the Tourism Code of Catbalogan City
during its regular session last January 19, 2011. The said code was
presented for the second and final reading by Hon. Ernesto Arcales,
the Vice-Chairperson of the City Council’s Committee on Tourism, Arts
and Culture, and Mass Media. He took the floor in behalf of Hon.
Stephany Uy-Tan, the chair of the said committee and sponsor of the
said code.
The code’s passage
serves as a culmination of the series of consultations between the
City Government and the Department of Trade and Industry -
Samar in its goal to beef up the local tourism. The Tourism Code
of Catbalogan City saw initial reading last January 5. It was then
presented for the first time to stakeholders composing of hotel and
restaurant owners, travel agency managers, transportation operators,
market vendors and the media, in a public hearing last January 10,
2011 at the Sangguniang Panlungsod. This is because the code also
provides rewards and incentives for tourism-oriented and
tourism-related businesses while at the same time giving
categorizations, requirements and corresponding fees for regulatory
purposes so as to improve their standards thereby making them more
suitable to visitors and tourists.
The public hearing was
a crucial step in the code’s approval for this served as a venue for
consultation with the sectors likely to be affected by the code, which
was still being proposed at that time. It also enabled the Committee
on Tourism, Arts and Culture, and Mass Media to gather more ideas on
how best to implement it. The said public hearing was presided by
Councilor Tan and also had Councilors Ernesto Arcales, Maximo Pescos,
Rodrigo Perez III and Joselito Mendoza in attendance.
The Tourism Code of
Catbalogan City will serve as the legal basis for the implementation
and promotion of tourism development programs. Two measures enforced
by the code are the allocation of funds and creation of a City Tourism
Council, the body that will be tasked with mapping out the direction
of the city’s tourism program. Tourism Council’s responsibilities, as
stipulated in the Code, include the creation of a Tourism Master Plan
that wil contain guidelines and policies for the over-all management
and promotion of the city’s tourism. This includes identifying and
creating a directory of potential tourism sites and conducting
programs to raise the public’s awareness of the merits of supporting
their local tourism.
Although the
Tourism Code was intended to be an income generating measure for the
city government, the code highlights sustainable as the foundation of
economic growth. Much emphasis is placed on management and
preservation of both natural and man-made tourism resources. It also
pushes for community empowerment through provisions that call for the
protection of host communities against exploitation and other harmful
circumstances that may come as a result of tourism boom.
