Jagna one of DOT pilot LGU'S on tourism stats

Tourism officers and representatives of selected Local Government Units (LGUs) of Bohol including Jagna attended recently a five-day Tourism Statistics Training at the Subic International Hotel at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Zambales. The technical training was aimed at building awareness and capability of the LGU participants of Bohol on the collection and processing of tourism data vital in the preparation of local tourism development and marketing, More importantly, the training hopes to come up with a uniform system to be used by said LGUs for compiling and reporting tourism data.

Since Jagna is one of the most visited municipalities by tourists today, domestic tourism statistics provide a proper perspective of the activity to guide policy decisions, development planning, quantitative information for evolving marketing strategies and facilitate investment decisions. While LGU-Jagna has long been an easy access and gateway to and from Mindanao in the southeastern part of Bohol in addition to a number of existing modern accommodation establishments and home stays and potential tourism sites and landmarks plus the ongoing construction of the Jagna Tourism Cluster Service Center at the port area, the use of tourism statistics can be an important data source particularly in the analysis for investment in tourism sector of the municipality.

Database and information statistics to be generated in the respective pilot LGUs are Supply Data to be collected once a year and Demand Data, a once a month requirement. By Supply Data, it includes number of accommodation establishments, number of rooms occupied, type or classification and number of people employed while the Demand Data includes number of guest arrival in every accommodation establishment, length of stay in terms of room nights and occupancy rate.

Accommodation establishment is one of the sources of information and data for tourism statistics as well as for development planning because it is a key to sustainability and prospect, uniformity and continuity. Same-day travelers' data at designated and identified tourist spots and pilgrim sites in Bohol is also a valid source. The pool of speakers during the five-day training were Tourism Development Planning OIC (DOT-Manila) Director Rolando Cañizal, JICA-Makati representative Mitsuhiro Maehara, DOT Region VII Tourism Operations Officer Angeli Lapingcao, Bohol Tourism Officer Oroncia Balio, and Tagbilaran City Planning and Development Officer Edgardo Macalandag.

Resource Speakers included the Chief Tourism Research and Statistics Division Officer of the Tourism Development Planning (DOT-Manila) Milagros Say, University of the Philippines-Asian Institute of Tourism (UP-AIT), Diliman Prof. Miguela Mena and JICA Consultant Tadashe Kume. Facilitated by the Department of Tourism and sponsored mainly by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the training seminar was attended by tourism, information and planning officers of LGUs Tagbilaran City, Baclayon, Loboc, Maribojoc, Calape, Tubigon, Danao, Candijay, Sierra-Bullones, Buenavista and Officials of the Bohol Tourism Office and Bohol Investment Promotion Center (BIPC).

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