DOT names Balbalasang, Balbalan as 3rd best Cordillera tourism village 2023

Balbalan, Kalinga – The regional recognition for Balbalan, Kalinga as among the leading community-led tourism villages continues to keep coming.

From settling as a runner-up last year, Balbalasang Eco-Village of Balbalan improved to third placer in this year’s Search for the Best Cordillera Tourism Village of the Department of Tourism – Cordillera.

The village followed Bagumbayan Coffee Village in Tabuk and Bila Tourism Village in Bauko, Mt. Province that placed first and second, respectively, as announced during the awarding ceremony held alongside the culminating program of North Luzon Travel Expo (NLTE) on Monday, November 27, in Baguio City.

The return of Balbalasang Eco-Village in said contest came with more offers than before, adding rappelling, bird watching, and other exciting tourism activities to its bid.

The village, as earlier described by Municipal Tourism Officer Regine Faye D. Munda-Cruz, is known “for its rich natural resources from the mountains to the rivers like the Saltan River which was awarded the cleanest inland body of water in the 1990s.”

Balbalasang, she added, is also being recognized because it was named as the Balbalasang National Park, now known as Banao Protected Landscape.

Likewise, the village offers to tourists the taste of community’s culture through their local delicacies, adventure through trekking, history through heritage building, and mesmerizing views through the Sea of Clouds at Sitio Bolak, and picnic and camping areas.

Scoring high on the criteria: sustainable management (25%), cultural sustainability (25%), socio-economic and rural economic development sustainability (25%), and environmental sustainability (25%), Balbalasang was awarded P200,000 grant for tourism development.

Meanwhile, the community effort and the gem destinations of Tawang, also in Balbalan, earned the village P100,000 prize for landing as among the three runners-up that include Chaya Heritage Village of Mayoyao, Ifugao and Nagacadan Open Air Museum of Kiangan, Ifugao.

This year, a total of 20 tourism villages participated in said search which was launched in 2022 as sustainable alternative emphasizing the pivotal role of local communities as catalysts for change, as stated by DOT - Cordillera Director Jovita Ganongan.

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