The Catanduanes Provincial Tourism Office will hold a nine-day eco-tour guide training for the Abihao Point tour guide association to improve their interpretative skills in nature guiding.

In a phone interview on Tuesday, Carmel Bonifacio Garcia, Catanduanes tourism officer, said the activity is part of the province’s tourism recovery efforts under the Alert Level 1 community quarantine status.

“This is geared towards capacitating our tourism front-liners with relevant knowledge, skills, and proper attitude to regain and improve the overall tourism experience of our tourists and guests as we move towards #ExcitingRestart and allow the local tourism industry to bounce back in the months ahead,” Garcia said.

She also said the training will introduce tour guides to various nature-based activities for them to develop a holistic knowledge of nature and guiding.

“The eco-tour guides will learn the overview of the tourism industry at national, regional, provincial, and local levels, the current trends and culture in tourism, local history, and culture, tourist safety and security, Filipino brand of service, basic life support, first aid, and common emergencies,” Garcia said.

The guides will be taught water safety, swimming assessment, land drills, survival and compass reading, basic ropemanship, ecotourism, biodiversity (flora and fauna), basic geography, forest and habitat types, birdwatching, effective customer service and values formation, tour guiding techniques and tour script presentation.

The activities for at least 30 locals from Baras town are slated from June 28 to July 2 and July 10-13.

Catanduanes is well known for its white beaches and breathtaking mountains. (PNA)