AsiaDHRRA and PhilDHRRA Luzon conducted an Altour workshop last November 7, 2007 at the PhilDHRRA Partnership Center in Quezon City. The workshop was participated by PhilDHRRA Luzon members who have altour interest and initiatives, namely Fundacion Santiago, Otradev Foundation, LIKAS, ICDAI, ASCODE Foundation, NORLUCEDEC & Batanes Development Foundation, Inc.
The workshop resulted in an initial assessment of the existing and potential sites, products or services that each group may offer in their communities as well as identification of gaps and critical activities and interventions needed to meet minimum standards for ecotourism. Several tour packages were also drafted for further review, fine – tuning and validation. Follow through workshops will be scheduled to address the capacity building needs of key stakeholders and social preparations of host communities. The group agreed that a regional proposal on ecotourism will be developed to mobilize resources for an integrated eco tour program for PhilDHRRA.
The workshop is part of AsiaDHRRA’s planned community – based alternative tourism program dubbed “Learning while Travelling”.