Sunday, November 25, 2007

Lifetime Tourism Achievement Award For Billie

By ODON S. BANDIOLA

Last Wednesday night, November 14, in Bacolod City at the Nature’s Village Resort and Hotel, Aklan Vice Governor Gabrielle V. Calizo added another feather to her cap in the field of tourism. She was awarded and received the Western Visayas Tourism Lifetime Achievement Award conferred by the Western Visayas Tourism Assembly.
The Western Visayas Tourism Assembly, hosted by the provincial government of Negros Occidental and the Bacolod City Government, reeled off last Monday, Nov. 12 in the City of Smiles, an annual event showcasing the diversity of tourism attractions, services and facilities of the different areas in Region VI.
In conferring the Lifetime Tourism award to Vice Governor Billie Calizo, the tourism assembly cited her achievements in the field of tourism. As a business entrepreneur, she was instrumental in making Blue Horizons Travel and Tours, Inc. the leading Filipino tour operator in Europe and for developing the European market for Philippine tourism.
Calizo’s Blue Horizons is a Hall of Fame awardee for inbound tourism under the Kalakbay recognition program of the Department of Tourism and the PCVC.
The Aklan Vice Governor has pioneered in bringing in the Russia’s tourist market particularly to Boracay Island, Aklan and to Cebu pushing an unprecedented increase in the number of Russian visitors to the Philippines. Calizo is acknowledged as the prime mover in developing the incentive and convention markets for the Philippines and was given the recognition by the Women in Travel for her exemplary contribution to the development of tourism.
The conferment ceremonies coincided with the Regional Tourism Awards Night of the WV Tourism Assembly which featured events like the Tourism Exhibit/Fair Travel Exchange/Mart, Regional Cultural Showcase, Tourism Forum, Search for Miss Western Visayas Tourism, Tourism Olympics, Parade of Festivals and Food Festival. This year, it carries the theme, “Entrepreneurial Tourism: Beyond Tourist Arrivals.”
The lady Vice Governor and Presiding Officer of the Aklan SP is not only a recognized industry leader in the field of tourism, she is also an accomplished political leader whose heart and mind are into the full development and progress of Aklan and her people. Be she in the Halls of Congress or in the Session Hall of the provincial legislative body, Calizo firmly believes that tourism is one among the surest means to economically uplift her country, province and her people. /MP

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