Toward sustainable tourism

The Oslob experience has continued to be an eye-opener on managing local tourism destinations. Or at least on the aspect of environmental protection. The Oslob Municipal Government might merely be reacting to happenings elsewhere, like the decision of the national government to temporarily close Boracay for a cleanup. But it has discovered along the way a better way of managing its tourist sites.

After closing Sumilon for a few days to conduct a cleanup drive on the island’s sandbar and dive sites and collecting tons of trash, Oslob officials now limit the number of tourists allowed to visit the sandbar to 500 persons a day. This after the Provincial Tourism Office (PTO) conducted a study on the area’s carrying capacity.

A similar cleanup drive in Tumalog Falls, the town’s other tourism destination, already collected truckloads of trash that included junk food wrappers and plastic bottles. Now the municipal government is thinking of also imposing a limit on the number of tourists that may be allowed into the site, following another study by the PTO on its carrying capacity.

The cleanup drive, thus, helped raise the level of awareness of town officials and town folk on the need to ensure sustainability of their tourism sites. Oslob Mayor Jose Tumulak Jr. summed it up well: “I am happy that they are now aware of the importance of cleaning their surroundings. If they fail to see this, then it would also mean the end of their livelihood...”

The next step would be to sustain the level of awareness and raise it further. That would mean institutionalizing the lessons learned and preventing a regression to old questionable practices.

Interestingly, officials of other local government units (LGUs) have not responded well to the call by Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale to conduct their own cleanup drive, insisting that the way they are currently managing tourism destinations is enough. The Capitol, though, should be more aggressive in passing on to other LGUs the lessons of the Oslob experience. Like Tumulak, officials of these LGUs may soon discover what they missed out once they conduct activities similar to the one done in Oslob.