Here on a two-day national summit for watershed management, Pichay said that because of the dynamic and active government and non-government organization partnership to protect, conserve and preserve Puerto Princesas and Palawan’s natural environments, it is not impossible for more domestic and foreign tourists to come.

“All your efforts to protect your environment will not go to waste. Soon enough, domestic and foreign tourists will hear about the good news of what you’re doing here and they will come to generate a lot dollars for your city and province,” Pichay said.

He added that although there are many sites to visit in Puerto Princesa and Palawan, they will not matter if their environments are not protected and preserved.

“Continue to help your local officials in protecting your environment because without it, your economy will not improve. Everybody benefits from a prosperous economy,” he furthered.

In Puerto Princesa, the tourist sites that gain the most number of visitors yearly are the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park at Sitio Sabang, Barangay Cabayugan and Hunda Bay in Barangay Sta. Lourdes. The newest tour activities that have been added recently are dolphin watching at the Puerto Princesa Bay, trek to Ugong Rock in Barangay Tagabenit, and firefly watching in the Iwahig River.

In the province, the most visited municipalities are Coron in the Calamianes Group of Islands, and El Nido for its attractive island getaways and panoramic landscape of karst and limestones. (PNA)

For P1, 000 or P5, 000, The Mind Museum will light a star or a constellation in its website. Sponsorship could be done online via credit card and eventually through the ATM as well. The goal is to reach 2 million pesos to help light the night sky of The Mind Museum in the form of a Star Cloth in the Universe Gallery. The Museum will show its appreciation to donors by sending an electronic certificate of donation, and by posting on the donors’ FaceBook wall, if they have one. Donors’ names will also appear by their chosen star or constellation in the Museum’s virtual night sky, and they will also be recognized in a donors’ marker in the Universe Gallery.

In a few weeks, the Mind Museum will also be offering more virtual exhibits such as the sponsorship of elements and their products through its Chemical Kitchen exhibit. With the launch of this online campaign, The Mind Museum hopes to get more people to embrace the cause to complete our collective dream of telling the story of science to Filipinos.

By helping build The Mind Museum, we help build imaginative minds — we help inspire future scientists, engineers, doctors, etc., that would help build our country. (Research shows that a country’s progress in science and technology is directly correlated to economic progress).

To get there, you can either go by car or through commute. The fare is roughly 20 pesos (as far as I can remember) to Lilo-an from SM City Cebu. Ride a jeep that’s bound for Li-loan or Naga. It’s more or less a 2-hour ride. The landmark to remember is the Li-loan church on your right. There’s a narrow road on the right before the church. Take that road. Well, if you’re going to Amara, it’s the same way. You get off at the church and ride a tricycle going to Amara, or better yet, tell the driver that you’re going to the “Parola”. That’s the Visayan term for lighthouse. I don’t know how much the fare is because we went there by car.

There are actually “Amara” signs along the road that tells you that you’re only 2 kms or 1 km away from the subdivision. But basically, after you go through that road (before the church) you have to look for the “Amara” sign on the left side of the road. You go left when you see that “Amara” sign and follow the road. The Amara subdivision is on the right side. The lighthouse is a little farther down the road. I assure you, the journey is worth it especially when you’re on top of the lighthouse. You can see the whole of Cebu City, Mactan Island and other neighboring municipalities from the top of the lighthouse. The Bagacay Point Lighthouse has been a favorite subject for painters and photographers and the location has been used for wedding shoots. There’s a small restaurant near the place in case you need some refreshments.

These include being a wifi-ready spot, a 24/7 boat availability and three baywatch towers.

Caticlan Jetty Port administrator Niven Maquirang said that the development is part of their initiatives to attain global standards by providing tourists free access to the Internet.

The Caticlan Jetty Port is the only entry and exit point in coming in and out of Boracay Island.

“We have posted the Internet connection password at the tourism information center for everyone to use,” he said adding that many tourists come to this resort island for business while others need to communicate with their relatives abroad.

The jetty port management has considered a 24/7 availability of motor banca in cooperation with the Boracay Transport Multi-Purpose Cooperative to ferry tourists in and out of Boracay Island anytime of the day.

“The SMART communications has also approved our request of donating three baywatch towers to Boracay Island. The tower will be used by our baywatch volunteers in cooperation with the Philippine Coast Guard Auxilliary and the Department of Tourism,” said Maquirang.

On the other hand, the Kalibo International Airport (KIAP) is now considering a 24/7 flight schedule because of the continuous direct flights from Hongkong, Korea, China and Taiwan.

According to a study undertaken by the BSTPO, most of the robbery and theft incidents recorded by the police that occurred in this resort island were perpetuated by children.

They were allegedly being used by the Salisi Gang syndicate to victimize tourists.

Earlier, the BSTPO issued a warning to tourists to beware of the Salisi Gang.

Most of the robbery incidents occurred in the front beach while some were reported in restaurants and bars.

The Department of Tourism (DOT) is expecting thousands of tourists to flock to this resort island this Holy Week. (PNA)

Incidentally, this is not a presumed scenario but what is actually being practiced by most of the hotels here like the Marco Polo Hotel Davao. The hotel also segregates its waste to limit its carbon footprint to a minimum. With these green practices, it should not come as a surprise that Marco Polo Davao was one of the Philippine hotels that received the Asean Green Hotel Recognition Award.

The Marco Polo Davao experience should be an eye opener to other tourism establishments in Davao City that are still hesitant about the practice of green tourism.

“There are numerous tourism establishments and for many of them sustainability is costly,” said Dr. Stefanos Fotiou, regional coordinator of the Resource Efficiency United Nations Environmental Programme.

Fotiou flew all the way from Thailand to Davao City to talk on “Greening the Tourism Industry: The Role of Standards and Certification” during the Green Tourism Forum held at the Marco Polo Hotel early this week.

Marco Polo Hotel Davao general manager Mr. Nigel Fisher said the tourism sector is such a major player in the world economy that there is no place or continent in the world without any tourism activity.

“Tourism has a significant impact on the world economy”, he said, but consumption and the residual products left behind should be a cause for concern.

Mary Anne Montemayor, convenor of the Green Alliance for Davao which organized the event, said green tourism is nothing new but the sector should be encouraged to go for environmentally-friendly practices within their establishments if only to minimize the effects of climate change.

“The green tourism idea has become exponential in view of calamities like typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng, the El Nino phenomenon and the Haiti earthquake,” Montemayor said.

Montemayor said all these calamities make climate change real for all of us, and it is time to take a collective action and make a difference. It may be too far out for the ordinary citizen to relate tourism with climate change. But take note that the moment a tourist books his flight and gets his ticket for a certain tourism destination, it is already equal to a significant carbon footprint that can contribute to global warming.

As Fotiou said, “a typical tourist will consume three to eight times more water than a local in the destination.”

It is thus important that tourism facilities lessen their carbon footprint as much as possible to help in the campaign against global warming, Montemayor said.

“Green tourism is the only way for the future; it has to be a movement and with its growth it can result to a more affordable way of doing things the green way,” Marco Polo Davao Executive Assistant Manager Art Boncato said.

Fotiou said 83 percent of the world’s tourism industry is dominated by small and medium enterprises who find sustainability costly. Despite this, he said, tourism has a great potential to contribute to sustainable development.

Among the United Nations’ initiatives to promote sustainable development is the green passport campaign and the sustainable coastal tourism campaign. It has also established the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC) and the Tourism Sustainability Council (TSC) which will be launched this month. The TSC aims to develop GSTC, accredit certification programs and spread awareness of sustainable tourism.

He said the strategy is to encourage tourism business to voluntarily adopt the basic green guidelines so they can become more sustainable.

Fotiou said the GSTC is the minimum basis for the standards to be accredited.

However, he said a global sustainable accreditation will not work because there are different situations unique for Davao and for the other tourism destinations.

He suggested that the green tourism initiative should start as a local initiative to be accredited by the national organization and then the GSTC.

Fotiou also made mention of Envirotel which is one of the UN initiatives to promote green tourism. This is a simple and practical guide that will assist hotel managers and staff to incorporate environmental practices in their daily operations. The small hotels will be able to download this tool for free once it is uploaded on the UNEP website.

Marco Polo Davao is however not the only tourism establishment in the city that has started to go green.

“Green tourism is now practiced by some responsible resorts and tourism players and the Davao Gulf Management Council has in fact acknowledged some in the hope that others will follow,” Save Davao Gulf Foundation, Inc. president and Councillor Leo Avila III said.

Toryanos, a local native chicken house, is also keen about green tourism and has already started implementing green changes by using environmentally-friendly products for its chicken house. Used barbecue sticks have also been recycled and are now used by the chicken house to fill up its walls.

SM City Davao, another tourism establishment, has also strengthened its environmental protection advocacy by making sure that all the lights inside the mall are CFLs since they use less power and have a longer rated life.

The Mall also partnered with the Davao Light and Power Company for the CFL Exchange Project. It is also involved in the “Trash to Cash” campaign.

SM City regional operations manager for Mindanao Debby A. Go said the company’s core environmental programs are in the areas of energy efficiency, water conservation, air quality efficiency and solid waste management. It has also spearheaded the green bag campaign. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has recognized SM City Davao for its best environmental advocacy and campaign.

Montemayor said there are a lot of pressing environmental issues affecting the Davao Region’s tourism industry foremost of which is the power crisis. She said the industry is one of the major users of energy and it is important that the tourism sector start embracing an energy-saving lifestyle.

By using CFL, Department of Energy chief science and research specialist Engr. Antonio de Guzman said, the consumer could save up to 5 kilowatt hour which is equal to P37.50 per month.

This, she added, means foregoing up to 2.1 kg of CO2 emission.

Montemayor said promoting Davao City as a major green destination will not only help the region but will also contribute to sustainable tourism. Green tourism could actually mean tourism areas that are bent in protecting their environments. These are areas that are proud of their environmentally safe practices, from resorts, restaurants and even hotels that are unpolluted and with minimal carbon footprints.

Department of Tourism-Tourism Services and Regional Offices undersecretary Oscar P. Palabyab said there is a market for green tourism and “Davao City will be the Green City of the Philippines.”

He said it is all about creating communities that are clean and healthy, which will then create the tourism markets. The world’s temperature is rising and the effects are already manifested in terms of the calamities that the whole world is experiencing. While the Philippines is not among the big league countries that pollute the environment with their carbon emissions, the country’s largest city in terms of land area can make a dent in lessening the world’s carbon footprint by going green. (PNA)