A special educational offering of the Philippine Bird Festival, the Ecotourism Forum is designed to be an avenue for ecotourism practitioners and strategists from across Asia to exchange best practices and success stories that instruct and inspire ideas.
Among the special educational offerings of the Philippine Bird Festival (PBF) is the Ecotourism Forum. First held at the 9th PBF in Luneta, the forum is designed to be an avenue for ecotourism practitioners and strategists from around Asia to exchange best practices and success stories that instruct and inspire ideas.
At its second roll out at the 10th PBF in Bataan, the forum gathered an audience that included local tourism students and professionals. Six tourism experts were in the panel: Andrew Sebastian of Ecotourism & Conservation Society of Malaysia, Victor Yu of Ecotourism Taiwan, Gawin Chutima of Thailand Cycling Club, Philip He of Chengdu Birdwatching Society, Director Marie June Bugante of Department of Tourism Region IX, and Balanga City Tourism Officer Rudy de Mesa.
Each panelist presented a success story from their own practice or locality, after which Gina Mapua of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines moderated the open forum and discussion. Department of Tourism Region XI Director Robby Alabado gave a synthesis at the close of the forum.
Mary June talked about how Zamboanga’s nature destinations continued to attract visitors after the 2013 siege and helped get the city back on its feet. Click here to view MJ’s presentation.
Rudy talked about the positive impact of the Balanga Nature and Wetland Park to the city’s tourism and education thrusts. Click here to view Rudy’s presentation.
Andrew talked about the butterfly tourism experience of Lankawi with notes on its potential in the Philippines. Click here to view Andrew’s presentation.
Victor talked about Green Holiday in Taiwan, a “working holiday” project that includes wetland conservation work and swallow survey. Click here to view Victor’s presentation.
Gawin discussed the remarkable growth of cycling tours in Thailand and shared the success factors that made this possible. Click here to view Gawin’s presentation.
Philip spoke about the transformational power of travel and communing with nature and how ecotourism is the better way to travel. Click here to view Philip’s presentation.