Bohol contemplates on ‘home stay' for tourists

WONDERING why booking at any of Panglao resorts or Tagbilaran inns appears impossibly hard?

After Bohol became a byword for eco-cultural tourism, vacationing here has become a test of wits. And sadly, that is not all of it yet. The dream-stay on this hard-to-book-for-a- place tourism island may become even more pronounced when the Department of Tourism's (DOT) projections happen.

DOT has said Bohol and the Central Visayas would host about six million guests in the coming year. Desperately trying to beat time in the attempt to close that backlog in rooms for guests, Boholanos in cultural tourism are now proposing the “home stay“ programs. This, they hope to cover the gap by transforming heritage houses into inns and spur creative industry tourism in the process.

The move also came amidst the reality that building more resorts and hotels here entail huge capital, which the local industries may not be able to cope up in time for the surge of guests. The program for creative industries can complement the gap that tourism boom has happened in Bohol, implied Lutgardo Labad, Chair of the Bohol Arts and Cultural Heritage Council, at the Kapihan sa PIA, aired province-wide over Station DyTR.

“The move to adopt a creative use of the heritage houses into inns, bed and breakfast venues and creative galleries of arts and crafts could also help revitalize our aging and otherwise neglected houses while helping owners gain more and implement restoration and conservation measures for these treasures,” Labad said. For that, heritage and conservation experts across the country are coming to Bohol to help heritage home owners in the transformation of their cultural treasures into profitable tourism for communities. The first International Conference on Heritage Houses and Vernacular Architecture (ICHHVA) is set May 16-17 at the MetroCenter Hotel.

According to organizers, the activity here brings experts to discuss topics on heritage houses and their potentials for spurring creative industries and cultural tourism, house restoration programs, vernacular architecture and heritage house curating. To know how to transform houses into tourist stops, home-owners, planning and development officers, restorers, builders and architects, academicians, government and cultural workers are then advised to come to the conference.

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