OTOP Familiarization Tour in Cebu South

I joined the first One Town One Product (OTOP) Familiarization Tour for Cebu tour guides last February 26, 2008. As expected, the sites we visited were interesting enough for tourists.

We believe orienting guides and operators on OTOP products of each town can increase the products' market exposure. Tour guides and operators educate tourists on heritage and culture of places. It would be logical for them to also know OTOP products which the Philippines can boast of because of their high quality. The recent OTOP briefings have given travel agents new information which they can share to tourists.

Cebu and Bohol have been consistently ranked as the top favored tourist destinations among foreign travelers based on the recorded number of international tourist arrivals by the Department of Tourism.

Note that these were the same tour guides who attended the OTOP Briefing held at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel.

Discussed during that briefing were the history and background on the provincial OTOP products. DTI 7 provided storylines for OTOP products which tours guides can use as part of their spiel during regular city and countryside tours. They can incorporate OTOP stories into the town’s history and narrate it to tourists.

The familiarization tour provided them with ideas for new tour loops. The familiarization tour covered visits to tourist ready sites in Talisay, Carcar, Argao and Minglanilla.

Next OTOP Familiarization Tour will be on March 3 this year.