EXPLORING new approaches in tourism like “edu-tourism,” clustering, and swapping packages can help develop the industry in the 12-member East Asia Inter-Regional Tourism Forum (EATOF), a Korean educator said Wednesday.
Jae Hee Jung, head of the Department of Tourism and English of Hallym College in Gangmon, Korea, spoke in the EATOF forum at the Cebu International Convention Center.
“In edu-tourism, learning is a two-way process,” he said, pointing to home-stay or farm-stay programs as examples.
“The tourists learn about a place, their culture, traditions, history and the people being visited are forced to learn and discover more about them and their place in the process,” he said.
In Korea, tourists come to experience life in a farm, Buddhism or making kimchi, a dish of fermented vegetables that is a staple for Koreans.
Jung said such a program needs strong interpersonal relations among local governments, the education sector and the tourism industry.
He also suggested that EATOF members form clusters for specific themes like sports tourism or wellness tourism.
“We can come up with ‘Hot and Cold’ theme for a tourism program that will attract especially Australians, Americans and Europeans,” he said.
In the “Hot and Cold” program, Jung said that countries like the Philippines, Korea and Japan can design a package for tourists to visit each of these countries to experience summer and winter sports.
“Australians love to engage in sports during summer, which Cebu can offer. Then Korea and Japan can offer sports activities for winter,” he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysia and Indonesia can partner for a wellness tourism program since they are known for the best beauty, health and wellness services like massage therapy in the region.
An annual swapping program, where members exchange tourist packages, would allow clients to take tours to destinations in other member countries.
“That way we can help our fellow members and also help create more awareness in the global market about what we as a group and individually can help,” he said.
“Cebu and Korea, for example, can promote their destinations as partners. Korea can promote Cebu and organize tours to Cebu and Cebu can also do the same for Korea,” he said.
He also proposed the creation of a a Tourism Research Education Center (TREC).
Philippine panel member Dawnie Roa, former Department of Tourism regional director, said she agrees with all of Jung’s suggestions.
“For the clustering, I think we are ready. The Cebu provincial government has been signing sisterhood agreements with other provinces in the region, which we can put to use by clustering for tourism. All those agreements will not just be plain signing of MOAs.”
With Cebu known as a heritage destination with several pre-war churches in the south as well as beautiful leisure spots, Roa said Cebu would make a good host for edu-tourism especially on culture and heritage.