Bohol will be coming up with a comprehensive tourism infrastructure proposal consolidated from the gateways mapping drawn by local government units.
The LGUs clustered by district still have to fine-tune the proposals they have drafted and the Provincial Tourism Office will call a meeting this week to come up with a consolidated provincial list for Bohol.
This is an offshoot of the two-day workshop facilitated by the Department of Tourism and Department of Public Works and Highways on November 10-11 in Cebu City.
The workshop was part of the Regional consultation on Tourism Infrastructure for 2018-2022 intended to identify priority tourist sites and priority tourism roads, connectivity and infrastructure.
It is designed to enhance access to tourism gateways, service centers and tourism sites. It is also intended to facilitate the review and evaluation of tourism road projects in support of the development of the Tourism Clusters in the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP).
The Tourism Infrastructure Program will be funded by the Department of Budget and Management through the DPWH.
In the process, the LGUs will come up with proposals; and in the pre-qualification stage, all the proponents will submit maps, and the tourist site identified should be less than 60 kilometers from the gateway or service center that there is an existing road.
The concept will be studied and will pass through a consultation, and it should get an endorsement from the Regional Development Council.
Then the tourism importance is considered wherein the proposals must meet the 60 percent cut-off. In the assessment, the tourist site which can offer same day or overnight stay gets 50 points, accommodation is 25 points, and having tourist-related facilities is also 25 points.
In the technical readiness, the process includes concept study, pre-feasibility study, feasibility study, and the preliminary engineering design.
The DOT and the DPWH also briefed the LGUs on the process for the evaluation and approval of proposals.
Road project proponents will submit the proposals which will be transmitted to the DOT and DPWH regional offices for evaluation.
It could also go to DOT or DPWH Central Office before forwarded to regional offices for evaluation.
If the proponents directly submits the proposals to the DOT and DPWH regional offices for evaluation, it will then be submitted to the DOT and DPWH central offices for validation, review, consolidate and programming after.
The DOT and DPWH will then prepare the Annual Tourism Road Infrastructure Program.
The Annual Tourism Road Infrastructure Program will carry the proposals that are in the regular DPWH program and proposals that meet the criteria in the order of priority ranking in consideration that they are in the budget or fiscal space and they are to be considered when there is additional fiscal space.
The Annual Tourism Road Infrastructure Program will also include the multi-year program and forward estimates.
Once the Tourism Coordinating Council (TCC) approves the Annual Tourism Road Infrastructure Program, the DOT secretary transmits it to the DPWH secretary; then the DPWH secretary includes the TCC approval in the annual budget of the department.
If the from the results of the evaluation, the TCC rejects the proposals, the letter of regret is sent to the proponent.