 Hi there! Welcome to Tourism Matters, a program that explores issues about tourism and why tourism is an important part of our lives. This is brought to you by UPAIT and TVUP. Tourism Matters tackle broad topics and are divided into three series. Number one, tourism policy and governance with a specific focus on issue on over-tourism. Number two, tourism education and human resource capacity. And number three, tourism industry, market, and enterprise. We hope you find the series interesting, educational, and fun. The UP Dileman Arts and Culture Month 2019 with the theme LACAD GUNITA SAI LUPANG HINI RANG was celebrated in February and March 2019 in commemoration of the 70th year of the university's move from its 10-hectare original site in Ermita Manila to its 493-hectare campus in Dileman. The Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts, or OICA, in cooperation with various academic units in the university, has prepared several activities such as an exhibit, a stage play, and an open-air concert to celebrate the UP Dileman Arts and Culture Month 2019. The UP Asian Institute of Tourism is OICA's partner in planning, developing, and operating themed walking tours featuring itineraries that highlighted events and places of historical significance in UP Dileman within the past 70 years, as well as places that showcase the university's diverse flora and fauna. Good day. My name is Bienvenido Claraval. Everybody calls me Bien. I'm a faculty member of the University of the Philippines Asian Institute of Tourism. I'm here to give you an overview of the LACAD GUNITA project. OICA gave us a set of parameters to organize some walking tours. They identified five themes, namely flora, fauna, martial law, public arts, architecture, and historical buildings. And the parameters, the physical parameters of the project was the academic oval, meaning we would concentrate our tour itineraries within this spatial limitation. So our dean, Edison, he called the meeting and asked myself, and Ms. Charmaline C, who is the other faculty member that teaches Tourism 175, which is travel management and tour operations, to look into this project and how to involve our students, those taking up travel management and tour operations, in the planning, development, and marketing and operations of these tour packages. The walking tours were offered on a complementary basis to all interested parties. The five thematic tours were juni, mulat, hanga, gubat, and lingon. Hashtag juni, scheduled every Monday, was a three-hour bird watching activity in the National Science Complex. Because of its lush vegetation, UP de Le Mans has become home to 115 endemic and migratory bird species. In this tour, participants got the chance to observe birds such as the yellow vented bull bull, copper smith barbit, which is locally known as Poc Poc, crow, Philippine fantail, Philippine pygmy woodpecker, crested mina, and long-tailed strike. Hashtag mulat, scheduled every Tuesday, brought back memories of the student activism during the 1970s that UP de Le Mans is known for. The tour escorts and site guides narrated how the de Le Mans commune started and the events that unfolded during the nine days of violence and unrest. The participants visited the buildings in the university where these events happened such as the Quezon Hall, Blaridel Hall, Melchor Hall or the College of Engineering, Gonzales Hall, Palma Hall, and Vinson's Hall. Hashtag hanga, scheduled every Wednesday, was a public arts and architecture tour within the UP de Le Mans campus. The tour itinerary included Quezon Hall, Palma Hall, Gonzales Hall, the Carrillion, the University Sundial, and the University Theater. As well as famous sculptures, namely the Oblation, Three Women Sewing a Flag, Raja Sulayman, and Shyam Nadiwata ng Sining. The participants got to know the stories and famous persons behind these buildings and artworks. Hashtag gubat, scheduled every Thursday, was a tour of the one-hectare EDC binhe, threatened species arboretum. Here, the participants learned about the different types of forests and endemic species of plants in the Philippines, such as yakal, tangile, giho, lawan, bagtikan, and apitong. The tour also included a visit to the Arbarium in the Institute of Biology where specimens of plant species are preserved and identified. Hashtag lingon, scheduled every Friday, was a tour of the historical buildings that surround the academic oval in UP de Le Mans. The itinerary included the Vargas Museum, Faculty Center, University Theater, Palma Hall, Carrillion Tower, Malcom Hall, Quezon Hall, and Melchore Hall. The site guides and tour experts discussed the stories, architects, and famous personalities behind these buildings. We decided to divide the project into two phases. Phase one, which was the planning and development part, which took place the last quarter of 2018. And phase two, which is the operations of the product proper, which took the packages were operated from February to March of this year. Okay, so what we did, we divided the themes into two. My section, which meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays, was assigned Marshall Law and Flora. While the other section, that meets on Wednesdays and Fridays, were assigned public arts, architecture, historical buildings, and fauna. I am Maria Rose Helene Manalo, known as RJ in AIT, and I am a project coordinator for the Walking Tours component of Lacad Gunita 2019. This is an experiential learning first time for me and for many of us. So, on Monday, Lacad Gunita is the hashtag Hunie or bird watch, where the prominent person who handled this, or who called it the Professor Bert Madrigal of the College of Human Kinetics. That is what we did on Tuesday, the hashtag Mulat. That is what I call it. And that is what Professor Michael Bernal did. Next, when it comes to Mircules, the hashtag Hanga, or what we call it, public arts and architecture, was assigned by Professor Robert Paulino of the College of Arts and Letters. From Thursday, we called it the hashtag Gubat in Ciudad. That was assigned by the Institute of Bio, to Professor Perry Ong, who is already in the sky. Thank you for your help. And the message of Lacad Gunita, we also called it the hashtag Lingon, where the historical building was the first of the College of Architecture at the time of Armin Sartu and their head researcher, Glenn Orbon. So we gave our students all the limitations and parameters of the project, and we asked them to inspect or do ocular of the sites to be included in the itineraries and gather material for the descriptive itineraries that would form part of the marketing tools, marketing material of the Lacad Gunita project. So the students went out. They inspected the different sites included in the different itineraries. They developed some tour scripts for the tour guides and the tourist courts, and they came up with the write-ups for the different brochures of each particular theme tour. We also determined the schedule of the operation of each package, since we were looking at our students or students of the university to act as tour guides and tour escorts. They would actually operate the packages they develop. The students of UPAIT, particularly those enrolled in the Tour 175 Travel Management and Tour Operations class during the first semester of the academic year 2018-2019, played an active role in developing the walking tours. Students were also involved during the implementation stage as tour escorts. So as a student of Professor Charmeline Cabigasi of Tour 175 or Travel and Tour Operations for the tourism industry, I was one of those who were tasked for the organization of a mock tour for the incoming Lacad Gunita program. And I am also currently now a tour escort for hashtag mulat, the Le Mans commune revisited walking tour. So what we were tasked with was the creation of the routes and the circuits of the different thematic walking tours. So in my class, our group was assigned the hashtag lingon for the historical buildings walking tours. So we were assigned to determine the circuits and the routes for hashtag lingon. And I must say that it was hard because formulating a new circuit, we had to really research about the important spots, important landmarks, the circuits, the size that were in between the landmarks. So it was very hard for us to do that because we really had to research. We really had to go to the different buildings to ask the security guards, to ask the admins in order to know more information about the historical buildings around the academic oval of UP de Le Mans. Hi, I am Jan Ray Guevara, a volunteer escort for the Lacad Gunita program. So being part of the Lacad Gunita program is really an amazing experience. So before we got into the actual experience of tour-guiding, we did a crash course. So in this crash course, we were taught the proper decorum, proper speaking. So basically tour-guiding 101, where they teach us the tips and techniques of basic tour-guiding. Why is there a tour escort and tour guide? Because the primary role of a tour escort is to bring participants, a group that will tour, to the venue, or the stops. When they arrive at the first stop, they will enter the tour guide. The tour guide is an expert in the content of the Lacad for today. So during the training, we had a mock tour where we acted as the participants. And our trainers, they demonstrated what it is like in the actual field. So in this training, we taught people parking, which is the proper placement of the audience to not cause traffic. And then we also taught people how to deal with the different audience. Because we have a very, very broad target market for this program. We also had to do a mock tour for hashtag Lingon. So it was hard because we really had to determine the carrying capacity of our walking tour. So we overestimated, we had 36 participants. And we didn't really have lapels, we didn't really have resources. So it was very challenging. But we were able to pull it off. So it was fun. At the end of the day, we had generated a little bit of profit to compensate us. So during the first day, the very first tour. So the first time we were able to join the tour guides and escorts, so we had problems with coordination since even though we had this script where we based our information for our discussions. But later on, we knew the planning system. We knew the proper time management, the pacing. And then by the end, we didn't really have to rely on the script anymore because we knew what we were saying and we knew when we would insert our jokes. That's our hashtag Hoony. We really started out as a tour escort slash tour guide, or it's also the primary source of information, because it's served by its high technology camera slash binocular. And this time was around 1 to 9. Because it was said that the time that the parents were going out was around 2 o'clock. So that was early in the morning. Since then, there have been two students who have joined the 11 volunteers from our tour 175 classes. We have called them tour escorts. We also enrolled or recruited the collaboration of the different units that participated in the project like Palma Hall, which houses the Martial Law. We're involved in the Martial Law and architecture. We also involved the Institute of Biology and all other units. And contacted project officers who would help us recruit students of the respective units to act as tour guides. So I know that they have learned a lot from Sir Bien, Clara Val, and from Mam Charm C. The tour escorts and guide trainers have joined. I will just mention that they are the same accredited. Participating or volunteering as one of the tour escorts really has its perks. So because of this, we have enhanced and improved our skills like communication skills, people skills, because we interact with different kinds of people every tour or every session. And because of this, we also learned to adapt to our environment. Important things that I learned is the appreciation for our tour because it's the hashtag of public arts and architecture. So we visit the public arts around UP or around the academic oval. So we learned from the information in our script. But we also learned from their experiences that I think it is really the same for each tour escort and tour guide for each tour. So being a tour escort of hashtag Mila at the Limán commune revisited walking tour. It really taught me how to improve my people skills, especially when we were dealing with a lot of different people. Our audience was divided into two. The alumni participants were often the victims of the Marcus regime before. And we also had the student part of the audience because these students were usually freshmen who really wanted to know more about the university. So it was a little bit hard to adjust to different audiences because we really have to cater to the older audience and we have to be able to bond with a younger audience. So adjusting and especially the pacing was hard. So I think that kind of skill was developed for me. People's skills, adjusting to people's. So from the two days of training of tour escorts and tour guide, the first is basics. Like we said, as a student, they taught how to improve people. How to tell their skills, their script. And if there's an interupt that's better than what they're saying, how do they face it? That they won't be able to do it. So that's one whole day. And the second day is what we call the tour guide. In every batch, there are different people, like babies, parents, so you get their different experiences from different kinds of people. So they're not the only ones who learn from our discussions. We became tour guides and escorts. They also learned from their knowledge. Like for example, there's an alumni who's a UP and then they went to the tour. So they shared their experience that we became, we didn't know that this was just new to them, or they haven't experienced this before because they don't have time. So I think that is a very good thing about this walking tour. At the same time, we prepared a reservations manual. We determined the procedures in accepting reservations. By the way, these tours were offered by the university on a complementary basis. First come, first served. So participants of these tours were not charged anything for the experience. So we came up with the reservations procedures and we also started designing the marketing tools. Each theme tour had its own separate brochure. It is not only the participants. The students, the alumni, whoever the audience is who learn. But it is also us tour guides and tour escorts who really learn through the experience even though you tell the same story over and over again. I think you really learn a lot not only from the tour itself but also from the audience that you interact with. Because pretty much in the tours, we interact with different kinds of people every day in work, in school, or just daily life. Then we experience different scenarios, unexpected scenarios and we learn how to deal with them and respond accordingly. So I think it is a really, really humbling experience and as you get to see what it is to be out there in the field and experience all this stuff. Our students gain the experience of planning tour itineraries of course within the Dilliman campus and arranging the sequence of the buildings and sites to visit plus the itinerary or the routing within this specific building. So if you are in Palma Hall, it has so many floors. Where do we assemble the participants? Where do you give the briefing? Which floor comes first? Which floor comes last? All of this is part of the planning process of tours. And of course during the implementation stage when you act as a tourist court or a side guide then you have to know how to manage the movement of the participants what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. Remember, the tour scripts were developed by the students themselves. The challenge here is that this is what we call a seasonal project and this is not really included in their curriculum or in their schedule for a year. We are still working on the schedule that they are doing before the walking tours. I know as a newbie here, I became a student because that was the first day. I learned that even though you already know the story and there is a way to show it to you, you will not be able to change your story. What was the major challenge as a mentor? Essentially what the students did, they put so many sides within a two or three hour itinerary. And of course this is because of the lack of experience. So I was telling them it's okay to include as much as possible. However, you also have to be considerate of your clients. So today, when we were doing the planning last year, we did not have a clue of the client profile, whether we would have families, senior citizens, students and so forth and so on. So the facing of the itinerary had to be for the average visitor, not too old, not too young. I understand later we even had pets joining the tour, but that's another story. So the challenge in my opinion was to make the students realize that while we want to promote UP Dilliman campus and all its historical aspects, historical and cultural aspects, we also have to be considerate of the clientele or the participants or the people who will avail of these packages. I must say that after making some arrangements and tweaking the itinerary a little here and a little there, we were able to come up with a very easily faced itinerary. The average duration of each tour was two and a half to three hours per tour. It's a walking tour of the U.P. campus, the academic oval specifically. Another challenge is because they are volunteers and they have classes. Sometimes they text me, I can't do it. So what I'm thinking now is who I will be talking to. That's why their training is good, they always have a tandem of so-junting, escorts. So if we talk to them about the help of our two trainers, they can't do anything about it, they can't do anything about it. So they learn how to fix it, play the role, play the part. If you're a tour guide, you're a tour guide, you're a tour escort, you're a tour escort. Also, you really have to prepare yourself with interacting with people because you don't know what kind of people you will encounter, you really have to adjust, you have to be patient, you have to be kind, you have to be considerate to the people that you will be serving because at the end of the day, you're not carrying only the name of your... yourself, but you're also going to be carrying the name of our university. So I think you have to prepare your body and your social skills. I hope that most of us will be able to participate because the most important message is that you will be able to know the university, the community that you are with and who you are. UPD LeMann has a lot of stories to tell. Students, employees, and alumni of the university, as well as the members of the general public who have participated in the walking tours have gotten to know the university on a deeper level. These stories about history, flora, fauna, public arts, and architecture will be cascaded to the members of the next generations who will also fall in love with the university. The students, especially the organizers of the walking tours and the tour escorts will forever cherish this learning experience as they also become part of the university's history.