KM 15, CENTRAL HIGHWAY, TAWALA, PANGLAO BOHOL, PHILIPPINES

By. Chairman Mao (Greeting to all the attendees)

The Department of Tourism has prepared series of activities for this month of September on the theme, TOURISM AND WATER: Protecting Our Common Future. Different governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, schools, colleges and universities are participating. In this regard, as head of the Ce-C-NSTP Office, I would like to grab this opportunity to express our support for all the activities. The Dept. of Tourism includes the schools, colleges and universities in their activities because it sees how much these institutions can do and contribute for the protection, promotion, conservation, preservation and development of Tourism and Water. Now, let us all go back to the theme which is TOURISM AND WATER: Protecting Our Common Future. It uses the conjunctive word and after the word tourism and before the word water. It only means that it is not either tourism or water that we should give more importance but must be both. That is, if we want to guarantee a bright and promising future ahead of us then we should not sacrifice one for the other. I am not an expert when it comes to Tourism. So when I made this speech I thought of something within my field of comfort to best explain Tourism. To those who are experts with Tourism, my sincerest apology for being bold enough, if I may say so, in explaining it in my own way. In the field of Geography, geographers came up with the five themes of geography in order to offer a structured way of thinking about the world and these can be used to study all kinds of geographic issues from local to global levels. These five themes are: location, place, human and environmental interaction, movement and region. So let me use these five themes in explaining Tourism from local to global levels. 1st is Location. It answers the question, Where is a certain tourism destination located on Earth? Is it Asia? Europe? South America et. al. 2nd is Place. It answers the question, What is it like in such tourism destination? It talks about the physical features of the tourism destination. Like is it mountainous? Like the famous Mt.

KM 15, CENTRAL HIGHWAY, TAWALA, PANGLAO BOHOL, PHILIPPINES

Apo, Mt. Mayon or Mt. Pinatubo? or hills like the world famous Chocolate Hills? or Lakes like the Taal Lake and Lake Sebu in Mindanao. or falls? like the Enchanted Falls? Pansanjan Falls and Ma. Christina Falls? And many other Physical Features. 3rd is Human and Environmental Interaction. How do people adapt to the environment. *Banawe Rice Terraces 4th is Movement. Which means people move or visit places for different reasons. *Baguio City, Tagaytay, Sagada *Boracay, Pagudpud, Amanpolo, Puerto Gallera, Malapascua, or Panglao. *food 5th and last is Region. What is like in a particular tourist destination in relation to its neighboring tourist destinations? Now, let us now connect water with tourism. Water is related to tourism because water transportation is needed in tourism. Many tourist destinations involve water like beaches, lakes, rivers, springs and falls. And lastly, Food which is also part of tourism is possible only through the use or presence of water. Almost all if not all food needs water. So by these, we must conserve, preserve and protect our water resources if we want our tourism sector to also survive and continue. Of the Earths water supply, only 3 percent is fresh water, and most of this is not available for human consumption. More than 2 percent is locked in glaciers and icecaps. The Antarctic ice cap, for example, contains more fresh water than the rest of the worlds regions. Another 0.5 percent is groundwater. Rivers and lakes contain far less 1 percent of the Earths water. So we barely only have 0.5% percent of potable water directly available for human consumption. If we will not preserve, conserve and protect our water resources then there could be WW 3 as what experts say not because for oil or petroleum gases nor not because of fight over territories but because of shortage of water. So let us do our part in the protection, promotion and development, conservation, preservation and of Tourism and Water. As what the famous saying tells us and it may sound a cliche and I quote Let us start now. Because if not now, then when? If not us, then who will?

KM 15, CENTRAL HIGHWAY, TAWALA, PANGLAO BOHOL, PHILIPPINES

Again, thank you. Good morning and Godspeed to us all!

KM 15, CENTRAL HIGHWAY, TAWALA, PANGLAO BOHOL, PHILIPPINES