The last ten days have been the busiest ones I've had since arriving in the PH. I've been going out on daily field trips to Naga City's surrounding municipalities, meeting with different food producers and vendors, searching for possible partners and suppliers for my project. The field trips usually involve meeting with municipal officers (planning and development or livelihood), local producers associations and micro entrepreneurs. It was really lovely to meet with local communities, who received me with amazing hospitality, and I feel quite lucky to have been given access to people's homes and business spaces.
The field trips were critical for getting a better sense of on the ground realities, as related to tourism. Before heading out for the visits, I had worked up a checklist of qualifying points for assessing site potential; however, that checklist has had to be done away with because it quickly became apparent that it would simply disqualify all potential participants. One of the biggest challenges has been trying to establish common language and understanding on what exactly culinary tourism entails -- difficult to do with the language barrier and with partners who have had limited (if any) exposure to the world of tourism. Now that some of these issues have come to my attention, I'm working on revamping my project goals and expectations, as what I had originally hoped to be able to accomplish is just out of the realm of possibility.
I know that I'm working from a position of privilege, in terms of having the name of CIDA behind me (being affiliated with CIDA has opened many doors that would have probably otherwise stayed shut), but it also poses some fairly big problems when it comes to managing expectations for what it is that I'm able to do: there have been many not-too-subtle hints dropped about wanting capital funding, free training, and other forms of investment. Trying to explain that tourism revenue will be the payoff for participation has been a difficult selling point, to say the least.
A few snapshots from the field trips:
The field trips were critical for getting a better sense of on the ground realities, as related to tourism. Before heading out for the visits, I had worked up a checklist of qualifying points for assessing site potential; however, that checklist has had to be done away with because it quickly became apparent that it would simply disqualify all potential participants. One of the biggest challenges has been trying to establish common language and understanding on what exactly culinary tourism entails -- difficult to do with the language barrier and with partners who have had limited (if any) exposure to the world of tourism. Now that some of these issues have come to my attention, I'm working on revamping my project goals and expectations, as what I had originally hoped to be able to accomplish is just out of the realm of possibility.
I know that I'm working from a position of privilege, in terms of having the name of CIDA behind me (being affiliated with CIDA has opened many doors that would have probably otherwise stayed shut), but it also poses some fairly big problems when it comes to managing expectations for what it is that I'm able to do: there have been many not-too-subtle hints dropped about wanting capital funding, free training, and other forms of investment. Trying to explain that tourism revenue will be the payoff for participation has been a difficult selling point, to say the least.
A few snapshots from the field trips:
Gainza's centre for making crab paste, funded by CIDA
Cooking demonstration in Pili
Dried corn at a farmers' cooperative in Pili
Rice field scarecrow in San Fernando
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