SP EMPLOYEES EXPLORE ADVENTURE SITES IN LA UNION
By: Rhea Matilde A. Ballesteros Photo By: GPC-SP Date: May 24, 2019
Sangguniang Panlalawigan Staff explores the Sea Urchin Sanctuary at Balaoan, La Union during the SP LegislaTour on May 24, 2019. The activity was conducted to support the Medium-Term Provincial Strategy which aims to position La Union as the Preferred Tourist Destination in Northern Luzon by 2022.
Identified as the Sangguniang Panlalawigan’s (SP’s) Wildly Important Goal (WIG) during the Strategic Targeting Writeshop, the SP employees visited and explored adventure tourism sites in the Northern Agri-Tourism Circuit on May 24, 2019, namely: Immuki Island and Sea Urchin Sanctuary of Balaoan; Pebble Picking Site, Baluarte Watch Tower and Occalong Falls of Luna; Tangadan Falls of San Gabriel; and Balay Anito Falls of Santol. The activity dubbed as “SP LegislaTour” is the direct contribution of the Office of the SP to the Medium-Term Provincial Strategy which is to position La Union as the Preferred Tourist Destination in Northern Luzon by 2022.
“LegislaTour” was coined by SP employees from the words ‘legislation’ and ‘tour’ as staff from the legislative branch personally visited and explored the identified tourism sites in the Provincial Tourism Master Plan. They were also required to take photos and post the same with appropriate caption in their respective social media accounts.
The activity aims to promote the various tourism sites in the province with the end goal of attracting tourists to come to La Union.
Aside from site seeing, the SP employees were also made to assess the strengths and weaknesses of these establishments/sites using the principles under the 5As of tourism and propose doable actions to further improve them, thereby making the visit of other tourists more enjoyable and worthwhile.
From the consolidated Focus Group Discussion Report submitted by each of the SP offices and units, their common observations were the sites are beautiful, accessible, relaxing, good for nature lovers and summer escapades and have tourist potential. Things that are yet to improve were spacious parking spaces, sanitary facilities, accommodation and recreational facilities, appropriate signages, concrete access roads, souvenir shops, trained/skilled personnel on tour guiding and basic life support or first aid and organized associations in the community to oversee these tourist sites.
All of their observations, comments, suggestions and recommendations will be summarized and the same will be submitted to the Local Government Units concerned, Office of the Governor through the Office for the Provincial Strategy and the SP.
Overall, the activity was an eye-opener for all the participants that indeed La Union is blessed with natural resources and it has to be taken cared of.
