Guimaras’ Nat’l Tourism Month celebration highlights digital transformation

The province of Guimaras celebrated the National Tourism Month by highlighting the importance of digital transformation of local businesses to recover from the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The provincial government in partnership with the Guimaras State College (GSC), Department of Tourism Region 6, and Department of Information and Communications Technology 6 conducted a series of webinars and online contests for the micro, small, medium enterprises (MSMEs), tourism-related industry groups (TRIGs) and Guimaras cultural groups on September 16-30, 2021 through online platforms.

The selection of activities was aligned with this year’s theme “Tourism for Inclusive Growth.”

The webinar series included “Digital Literacy Towards Tourism Inclusive Growth”, “ECommerce Marketing 101”, and “Guimaras 4.0: Tourism Resilience in COVID-19 & Digital Transformation”, which is the first international virtual conference on Education Tourism.

The online contests included photo blog featuring the local tourism industry workers and their products/services; and the “Most Popular Facebook Page” that seeks to assist MSMEs and TRIGs in their forays in e-commerce through the help of Information Technology students of GSC.

“We are hopeful that through their learnings from these activities, we will take the next step in the digital transformation of our businesses in Guimaras,” said Ms. Liberty N. Ferrer, Officer-in-Charge of the Provincial Tourism Office.

“Let us help each other by supporting our local products and all together move forward towards the new normal,” she added.

Governor Samuel T. Gumarin explained that “On the part of the government, we need to consider the long-term effects of the COVID-19 crisis while capitalizing on the digitalization and promoting the structural transformation to build a stronger and more

sustainable resilient economy.”

“The Online Business Page Contest is an amazing initiative! As part of the MSME community and one of the contestants, I am grateful that we are given this opportunity to help us navigate our business, present our products and services online, and effectively engage with customers,” said Ms. Richel G. Malimit, one of the FB page beneficiary and owner of Guimaras Island-Yeshua Travel and Tours.

The online activities reached 8,542 viewers.