While tourists enjoy the elephant ride in Thailand so much, here they could experience the joy of the carabao ride, they could live the way barrio folks live, they could see something which they have not seen somewhere else.

Provincial Tourism Officer Atty. Ivan Patrick Ang recently disclosed that the Community-Based Rural (CBR)  tourism which has long been popular in Europe could very well work out in Zamboanga del Norte. Tourism Officer Ang explained that tourists have been bored by city life so they turn to go to farms or barangays for a change.

“No, they do not need plush hotels and elegant beach resorts anymore. This is the traditional concept of tourism,” he pointed out, “. . . and this is not the kind we are to adopt,” he added. Under the new program, the tourism office shall evaluate some barangays in the province what they could offer to the tourists. Since the province is agricultural, it proposed for an agri-based tourism. This means, PTO explained, the barangays themselves shall identify what good tourist potentials they have and develop them to attract tourists.

These, PTO added, must be something that they have not seen or experienced in other places in the country. As an example, the office pointed to the elephant ride in Thailand which tourists have always longed for in the country. “We could have our own carabao ride; this could be a pleasure to them,” Ang said. He also informed that the Provincial Tourism Office and the Community Assistance Development Unit (CDAU) will be helping the barangays to identify their unique selling point so that each could stand out in the tourism industry. (Press Freedom, Vol. XX No. 26)