The Community- Managed Agritourism Trek in Tigaon, Camarines Sur, Philippines: Cbpar Approach

Abstract

The study aims to develop a community-managed agritourism trek in Tigaon, Camarines Sur, Philippines through Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) that may serve as a vehicle in uplifting the socio-economic condition, preserve the biodiversity of the locality and in support to the governments’ plans and programs in promoting agriculture and tourism which will benefit the farmers, creates job opportunities, preserve nature and in response to RA 10816 of 2016 otherwise known as Farm Tourism Development Act of 2016. The study adopts the exploratory method through focus group discussions in classifying potential agritourism activities and determining possible obstacles. Interviews and ocular site visits were also conducted for validation. The participation of Agtang Tabanganon and the community shed insights in developing community-managed agritourism trek in the locality. Based from the results, the socio-demographic profile reveals that most of them were elementary graduates and their job were laborers and housekeepers while in classifying agritourism potential activities reveals agri-entertainment has the most number of activities followed by agri adventure and agri products where tourists will experience the traditional way of picking up products without any machinery used. The identified possible obstacles and the necessary trainings are opportunities towards a competitive operation of community-managed agritourism trek activities that will help the indigenous people, women, family farmers, habalhabal operators generate additional income while improving the value of the tourism experiences.