On the Dot
By Helen J. Camarista

Search for new destinations

The Philippines as a tourist destination is basically made of two parts, namely, the fascinating places visited by hundreds of tourists and visitors most part of the year and those places not heard of or visited by most people because of  lack /inadequate information on how to go there and what they have to offer.

To mark its 25th founding anniversary, Women in Travel (WIT)-Manila in coordination with the Department of Tourism, would like to have these new and exciting places captured in enthralling photos and videos to serve as an invitation for the foreign and domestic travelers to visit the Philippines. This writer was sent by Regional Director Edwin G. Trompeta to represent the Department of Tourism Region VI during the project paper presentation by officers of WIT on September 8, 2005 at the Department of Tourism-Manila Office.

The Search for New Destinations aims to introduce new alternative destinations for frequent travelers and promote domestic and inbound tourism, motivate local government units and other stakeholders to develop their own local attractions and enhance their means of livelihood as they discover and create activities that will promote and improve their localities and introduce undiscovered destination in the tourism industry.
 
The Search has three (3) categories: undiscovered/high potential, unique and rural/natural tourism. Entries in the undiscovered category has to be a new destination and may not be in the DOT listing, not commercially developed, good peace and order condition, friendly community and have basic utilities such as power and potable water.

Unique category entries can be an event unique to the location or a local indigenous tourism attraction cannot be found elsewhere. They have to be new which means discovered no more than two years ago, must be attractive to tourists. This is distinct and separate from a natural resource attraction. They must be accessible, have good peace and order condition, friendly community and basic utilities such as power, water, communication, accommodation, etc.

The rural/natural tourism category encourages the development of tourism sites that focus on ecology. Entries in this category must have a natural resource attraction, good peace and order condition, be not commercially developed and friendly community.
A site entry shall be evaluated on the basis of the following criteria:
• New destination-not yet discovered or recognized as a tourist attraction by the Department of Tourism
• Unique attraction- unusual, original, one of a kind
  High tourism potential-appeal to national/domestic or international markets
• Quality of the natural and/or cultural environment
• Peace and order - security, tourist safely
• Accessibility - proximity to major international/domestic gateway and tourist service center, transportation connectivity
• Social/political support – community involvement /participation, government support/cooperation, private sector support/partnership
To be eligible to join, the entry should have availability of basic utilities (power, water supply, communications, drainage and sewerage system), availability and quality of visitor services (accommodation facilities, support services/amenities, support infrastructure), limited site development and promotional activities and no land ownership problem.
The contest is open to any private or government entity in the Philippines. Interested parties in Western Visayas can get the application forms and other details from the Department of Tourism Region VI or  the Provincial /City Tourism Office where the entry is located.

The schedule of activities is as follows:
Deadline for submission of entries (Regional)  - October 15, 2005
Judging (Regional Level)    -    October 30, 2005
Semi-finals Round (National Level) – November 15, 2005
Ocular Visits by Judges   - November 16-December 31, 2005
Pre-Finals      -     January 2006
Finals and awarding ceremonies  - February 2006 during the Traveltour Expo’06