ATOP declares Masskara Festival as Second Best Tourism Event
Bacolod City -- Bacolod City's MassKara Festival is declared second Best Tourism Event in the Philippines in the Chartered City Category during the 8th National Association of Tourism Officers Convention (ATOP).
ATOP conducted awarding held at Camarines Sur recently. ATOP is accredited by the Department of Tourism.
MassKara Festival is one of the best tourism practices of Bacolod City Tourism Office. The awarding ceremony was led by Grace Marzan; DOT Monitoring Group, Jenny Cordero ATOP President who is also the Negros Occidental Tourism Officer, Nor Arcangel, National Vice President for Luzon and Camarines Sur Tourism Officer Ma. Fe. Maralit.
Ma. Elma M. A. Gerasmo, Senior Tourism Operations Officer and ATOP's National Vice President for the Visayas received the award on behalf of City Tourism Office. Also in attendance was Ardis Jaculina Permits and Licensing Officer and Center Head of Investment and Promo of Bacolod.
Meanwhile, Bacolod City was invited to conduct a presentation on the MassKara Festival, its history and description, at Andong City Korea, during the latter's World Mask and Culture Symposium. The symposium was in line with the 2007 Andong MaskDance Festival which was hosted by the International Mask Arts & Culture Organization organized by the Andong Festival and Tourist Foundation.
The objectives of IMACO in bringing together countries and cities in the with mask-wearing festivals are: to pursue cultural diversity based on the symbol and mask culture all over the world and to create, research and collect masks, symbol and culture of each cultural area. Other countries which participated include Indonesia, Bhutan, Thailand, Korea and Japan.
Gerasmo was invited to be one of the speakers at the symposium. Andong City's MaskDance festival is selected as the best Festival in South Korea by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism for the past six years. (CMO/PIA)