Tagbilaran City is indeed solidifying its stake in Heritage Tourism. After the Barangay Cultural Mapping, Architectural Documentation and Geo-Tagging, City Mayor John Geesnell “BABA” Yap welcomed another initiative from Grupo Kalinangan, a Non-Governmental Organization solely dedicated in creating, developing and improving heritage management. Grupo Kalinangan’s Prof. Joel Aldor said that data stored in traditional modes are often lost.

Further, heritage data should always be updated since it changes over time. And since the data needed for Tagbilaran City are already in place, Prof. Aldor said they are willing to handle the data management. This would be advantageous to the City since the managed data will be used as the basis to develop policies which would protect and preserve heritage resources and it could be the basis for incentives which could be given to stakeholders. Compared to the Geo-Tagging that USAID did months ago, the heritage data management being offered by the group is more detailed and comprehensive. They followed the model used by Wikipedia where data can be open and shared or made public.

The data could also be translated geo-spatially. Thus, creating and establishing significance with all other areas of development. Prof. Aldor said they could provide the training to key officers in the City for the use of the Philippine Heritage Map, development of initiatives and policies to address the key issues in Heritage Management and monitoring and evaluation.

Counterpart from the City Government would be the venue and snacks for the training. Mayor Yap thanked Prof. Aldor and concluded that this initiative was indeed timely. “This is beneficial to us, especially now that we are aggressively pushing for the development of our tourism industry. The value that it would bring to our economy through tourism revenue is truly precious.”