By: Rey Anthony Chiu

Take it from Catigbian Mayor Roberto Salinas when it comes to learning a lesson or two in packaging the latest tourism allure of his municipality. Consistent with projections, local leaders said Catigbian’s prime eco-adventure park has grossed more than P800, 000, barely four months after adventure tourists started forming a beeline to the town’s new attraction. And, unlike what their projections were, the main bulk of adventure tourists were not even foreigners, thus admitted Mayor Salinas over at Kapihan sa PIA Thursday. “We never even realized it would be the locals who would be more attracted to the park and its activities, Mayor Salinas said. Catigbain’s newest product is the Dagook Adventure Tourism Experience (DATE), a park that offers at least four adventure activities all set to solidly stake its claim as a wholesome family tourism destination.

DATE is in line with the Green Recreational Eco-Adventure Tourism (GREAT) Catigbian, he adds while relaying that the park was in fact their biggest gamble ever. Already looking at the town’s great outdoor potential, Catigbain has supported private investors in designing outdoor activities, but several of them could not survive. Seeing the concept for DATE, the local leaders saw an activity that complements the Abatan River Community Development as identified by the management council. DATE park is our newest tourism product as Catigbian joins the tourism bandwagon within the Abatan circuit, adds Municipal Tourism officer Ardissa Estavilla. Sold as an initiation into the emerging extreme eco-adventure tourism in its sister town in Danao, Catigbi-an’s four in one activity at the DATE park includes three traverses: on a hanging bridge in the Canopy Walk, on steel cables at the knee shaking Monkey Bridge and on a spine tingling zipline that swings you out from the top of the mountain back to the main activity center via the Mountain slide.

The traverses are ushered in by to moderately manageable treks based on their eyed market niche: students and aging citizens who profess they still have the nerves to explore the outdoors. Identified by the Catigbian Performance Team as a tourism venture, the Date Park is the biggest gamble the local officials had waged in the past years, admits mayor Salinas. Set in a 22 hectare lot the local government unit has acquired and developed using its local sources, DATE park slowly emerged from a convergence of fund sources including the Department of Tourism, The Department of Agriculture, former Senator Migs Zubiri, Catigbian’s Millennium Challenge Fund prize and a bold loan form a commercial bank. We tapped a loan of P5.5 million from a commercial bank, payable in two years, to largely finance the development of the four in one activity, according to Mayor Salinas, while banking on the promise of an adventure tourism niche that has not been well explored that much.

Boasting of more than 5 thousand guests in the park logbook, the mayor who is also a retired navy captain claimed not everyone who comes in and experiences the rides puts in their names in the logs. Now hoisting the challenge to students and senior citizens who may not have the luxury of time getting into local destinations, the mayor said handsome discounts are up for these markets. Not a lot of young people have said they did not realize there is a thrilling destination out here, and we have gone to far away places to find them, the mayor said. Now, we would make sure they would get a chance to prove they can get a slice of the thrill here, he said.