Tourism services standards. Who needs them? The provincial government of Bohol thinks Bohol needs them. That is, if the province wants to maintain and sustain its niche as the no. 1 tourism destination in the country.

So early this year the provincial government sent a team of government officials and employees along with some participants from the private sector to train on how to come up with a manual of eco-tourism services standards that everyone in the industry can follow or comply with. The team is now ready with the draft but to make sure that everybody agrees with what they have come up with, the team presented the manual last week to both the stakeholders from the public and private sectors.

The Philippine-Australia Human Resource Development Facility (PAHRDF) funded the training that brought the participants to Davao, Phuket, Thailand, and the different tourism facilities of Bohol to make sure the team could capture what needs to be included in the manual of services standards for tourism in Bohol.

Boholanos cannot attain their vision of making Bohol a prime eco-cultural tourism destination in the country and a strong agro-industrial province in the Visayas without setting up standards to guide everybody in the industry.

The phenomenal growth of tourism in Bohol that every one sees is not an accidental one. It was there the moment Boholanos clarified their vision of the province. It was what everybody wanted it to be. But unless standards and guidelines are put in place this growth will be temporary and end up plunging Bohol to oblivion or make it unmanageable if not uncontrollable for sustainability. Either way Bohol's tourism will be doomed.

The standards are really meant to engender among the tourism players the striving for quality in all tourism products being promoted in the province and instil a sense of corporate social responsibility (CSR) among the stakeholders of the industry. CSR promotes sustainability and sustainability is the essence of eco-tourism.

The standards are also seen to provide an enabling environment for tourism development in the province that will be most attractive to investors. Through them, investors will have clearer projections of the rate of returns of their capital investments.

Moreover, everyone will, for example, have a clear understanding and expectation of what services or facilities are offered by hotels or resorts classified as Class AAA.

The presentations that were made each to the public and private sectors turned out to be very productive. The exchanges of ideas and insights as to what should be included in the manual were quite frank and candid.

Examples of concerns raised at the presentation included the lighting of the Loboc River that drew not a few negative remarks both from tourists and industry players. While the efforts at lighting the river and the fund donations that came with it were highly appreciated, the visuals that visitors see while cruising at the river appeared contrary to what the river is being projected to be. Can the project still be reconsidered? Or can a change order be possible?

Another suggestion worth noting seriously was the observation that while standards are being set to provide a sustainable growth for tourism, they only refer to what the private establishments are expected to do or comply with. The draft did not speak of what the public sector is expected to do. Like what standards should there be for infrastructure leading to tourism facilities?

The team's job is only to come up with the manual of services standards. And yes, also come up with the advocacy and communication plan and even the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the standards. But unless everyone is convinced in his or her heart that we need these standards, and will commit with passion to support them, the future of sustainable tourism in Bohol will still hang in the balance.