Agri-tourism confab ends today

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna, Philippines – The three-day “First National Agritourism Research Conference in the Philippines” is set to wind up today.

The scientific forum is organized by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization-Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEAMEO SEARCA) and Tourism Foundation, Inc. (TFI) of the University of the Philippines-Asian Institute of Tourism (UP-AIT).

With “Strengthening Agriculture-Tourism Linkages through Research” as its theme, the assembly will be held at SEARCA on the UP Los Baños (UPLB) campus.

Philippine government-hosted SEARCA is one of the 20 regional centers of SEAMEO, an intergovernment treaty body founded in 1965 to foster cooperation among Southeast Asian nations in the fields of education, science, and culture.

SEARCA director Gil C. Saguiguit, Jr. said the conference brought together entrepreneurs and investors, industry regulators, organizations, and the academe (particularly state universities and colleges or SUCs) engaged in agritourism R&D projects.