Voluntourists to Eastern Visayas to keep coming – DOT

MANILA, Philippines - Tourists visiting both for leisure and volunteer work or “voluntourists” are seen flocking to Eastern Visayas, further propelling the recovery of the region years after the devastation it suffered from Super Typhoon Yolanda.

Department of Tourism (DOT) Region 8 director Karina Rosa Tiopes told The STAR voluntourism in the region may remain a trend over the next two years as rehabilitation and socio-economic development projects continue to be implemented to help Yolanda victims.

“Region 8 still has not fully recovered. There are still areas with ongoing rehabilitation activities and economic programs, such as livelihood programs, being conducted by non-government organizations. Voluntourism will still be relevant within the next two years,” Tiopes said in a phone interview.

She said the DOT is coordinating with the tour operators to encourage both foreign and local volunteers to visit tourist sites during their free time.

The voluntourism trend started immediately after the government and NGOs alike commenced activities to rebuild Eastern Visayan provinces destroyed by the storm surge brought about by Super Typhoon Yolanda in 2013.

“Most of the volunteers stayed for quite some time, six months to two years. So when they were here doing volunteer work, during the weekends, they would patronize the tourism assets in other parts of the region not affected by the typhoon,” Tiopes said.

Voluntourists emerged as instruments for the region’s faster recovery as they not only provided the resources and manpower for rehabilitation projects, but also augmented the income of the communities through their tourism activities.

“We consider them heroes in the sense that in every tourim activity they do, it equates to earnings on the part of our communities. Even until now, every tourist that comes to Region 8 are heroes because they’re helping us build back our communities and the economy,” Tiopes said.

They also contributed to the realization of the tourist arrival targets of Region 8.

 In 2015, alone, tourist arrivals in Eastern Visayas reached 1.1 million, 15 percent higher than last year’s figure of 964,093 and 50 percent more from the 2013 level of 732,055. The region aims to increase tourist arrivals to about 1.2 million this 2016.