Governor Gwen Garcia is slated to travel to South Korea next month for the 18th East Asia Tourism Forum (EATOF) in Gangwon, South Korea, her first official out-of-the-country trip since she returned to office for her fifth term in 2019.
The governor accepted EATOF Secretary General Jun Tae Hyeon’s invitation during his visit to the Capitol on Wednesday, August 30.
Gov. Garcia, who once led the organization back in 2011, is expected to speak before the delegates to share Cebu’s best practices in tourism and agriculture.
The three-day forum, which will start on September 21, is part of Gangwon’s month-long Forestry Exhibition 2023 under the theme of "Seeking the Future of the World and Mankind in the Forest". The forum will tackle different issues and challenges facing the tourism sector in the region. It will also present opportunities for bilateral talks on areas of development with other EATOF member provinces.
Cebu is one of the nine founding members of EATOF which was established in the year 2000 in Gangwon. It brings together local governments in East Asia to jointly develop the tourism industry in the region. The other founding members are Yogyakarta Special Region in Indonesia; Tottori Province of Japan; Jilin Province of China; Sarawak, Malaysia; Chiang Mai, Thailand; Tuv, Mongolia; and Primorsky, Russia. Its membership grew to 12 when in 2005, Quảng Ninh Province of Vietnam joined; and in 2009, Luang Prabang of Laos and Siem Reap of Cambodia were added.
In September 2011, Cebu hosted the forum at the Cebu International Convention Center which was attended by 11 governors from EATOF member provinces. | PIO