A PROPOSAL by a group of College of Tourism and Hospitality Management (CTHM) students to boost Nueva Vizcaya’s farm tourism to cushion the Covid-19 pandemic’s economic impact won best destination marketing plan in the 2020 University of the Philippines Asian Institute of Tourism (UPAIT) Tourism and Hospitality Conference on Nov. 21.
Isabel de la Dingco, Henrietta Mariano, Kimberly Simangan, Antonio Tiong III and Ma. Vanessa Anne Valencia bested 13 teams from nine schools with their marketing plan, “Asenso Novo Vizcayano: Agrikultura at Turismo Para sa Makabagong Panahon.”
The group presented a 10-minute pre-recorded video via Zoom.
De la Dingco said Nueva Vizcaya was “blessed with a geography and climate that allows for the production of export-quality crops on par with the Cordillera Administrative Region.”
“Farm tourism in Nueva Vizcaya is currently in its infancy stage and… after careful research, the team, together with our coaches, decided to push through and conceptualize plans and recommendations that will aid in establishing farm tourism as a main tourism product of the province and utilize it as a strategy to re-introduce the province’s tourism industry,” de la Dingco, the team leader, told the Varsitarian.
The marketing plan has three phases: preliminary activities, introduction and execution of farm tourism activities and plans and recommendations.
“We are hoping that [tourism] in Nueva Vizcaya will bounce back and meet the changes of the ‘new normal’ and become an industry that will truly help the people,” de la Dingco said.
The team was coached by Asst. Prof. Christine Fajardo, CTHM alumnus Arnulfo Butiong and competition project head Jame Mercado.
University representatives Mariztel Adan, Mary Cucio and Al Reile Dela Torre also won second-runner-up honors in the travel brochure-making competition.
The UPAIT Tourism and Hospitality Conference is an annual national interschool forum designed to prepare students in tourism industry work. Nolene Beatrice H. Crucillo and Joanne Christine P. Ramos
