OBJECTIVES

• To enhance participants knowledge and appreciation on the concept of rural tourism as a strategy for enhancing and or creating economic opportunities in rural areas;
• To familiarize participants with the best practices in management of selected models of rural tourism enterprises which may be promoted and or adopted in Philippine provinces; and
• To promote development of community based tourism-oriented enterprises in Philippine provinces as a way of optimizing utilization and productivity of resources in rural areas.

BACKGROUND

Rural areas are increasingly becoming popular destination of city dwellers who want to have a taste of countryside life and or enjoy the bucolic setting. In many cases, visitors to rural areas look for the attraction, activities, authentic rural food and amenities of the area. These are the essentials four As in rural tourism. There are various possible attractions in rural areas both man-made and natural which can be harnesses for tourism enterprises. These include the natural landscape, rivers, lakes, farms and the culture of the local community, among others. There are also many possible activities which can be offered to visitors depending on the endowments of the area. These may include activities like trekking, mountain climbing, rafting, bird watching, fishing and including agriculture activities involving harvesting fruits and vegetable and actual farming operations. Many local communities also have their indigenous or unique foods which visitors would like to taste or watch the process these are prepared or processed. The cultural practices like dances and songs and heirlooms of the community are also potential attractions for visitors. But to make these attractive to visitors, some need to be enhanced and packaged with other elements to constitute a rural tourism package. Such package may include the provision of local accommodation, recreation activities, and food and souvenir items. In other to develop such viable tourism package, the whole community should be involved and the benefits should be well distributed to all stakeholders to ensure sustained participation and cooperation, this is the essence of community-based rural tourism,

In many developed and some developing countries, where rural tourism enterprises have been flourishing, rural tourism now contributes significantly to job creation in the countryside particularly in the service sector, and stimulate higher demand for locally produced agriculture and food products as well as handicrafts. These enterprises are also catalytic in generating other benefits to the rural communities such as better environmental and cultural awareness, preservation of cultural heritage sites and agro-biological diversity. Countries in Asia and the Pacific have huge potentials in developing rural tourism as a strategy for increasing economic opportunities and overall rural productivity. Local entrepreneurs and officials of government responsible for planning and managing rural development and tourism development have to be made aware of these great opportunities.

SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY

The tentative topics to be covered are as follows:

• Issue, challenges and opportunities for the development of rural areas as tourist destination;
• Marketing and promotion of rural tourism packages;
• Promotion of local culture and indigenous products as part of rural tourism package;
• Stakeholders and community participation in rural tourism project planning and development;
• Harnessing and sustainable management of natural resource endowment for tourism;
• Establishment and management of hotel and hospitality industry in rural areas
• Integrated quality management and monitoring processes for rural tourist destination
• Service quality delivery at rural tourist destination