The Department of Tourism in the Cordillera Administrative Region (DOT-CAR) is calling on traditional massage therapy practitioners to help promote the practice in a bid to be included among products and services in wellness tourism.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a gisgisto, kulkulis, and the dagdagay, which are traditional massage (techniques) in the Cordillera that we can promote and be like Thailand that has its traditional massage that has become a wellness tourism product sought after by tourists,\u201d DOT-CAR director Jovita Ganongan told the Philippine News Agency on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Gisgisto is a Kankanaey word, or the dialect of people from the Mountain Province, which means head massage, while kulkulis and dagdagay are foot message techniques using a special stick.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to have it at Mt. Data Hotel as a come-on. We are calling on those who used to do the massage so that we can revive and offer it again,\u201d Ganongan said.<\/p>\n
Mt. Data Hotel is an accommodation facility owned and managed by the DOT.<\/p>\n
Ganongan said they have asked the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) in the region to help produce a curriculum for this practice, to include this as a special trade skills offering.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are now few practitioners but we are working on reviving the practice not just for tourism promotion but also to revive a part of our tradition and culture in the Cordillera,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ganongan said wellness tourism has a huge potential with travel viewed by many as a rest and a relaxation option from the toxic daily routine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe essence of travel is to rest, to take a break from the routine activity, to rejuvenate the mind, the body, and the spirit and we want to add more activities for the wellness of the travelers,\u201d the director explained.<\/p>\n
She said that wellness tourism started before the pandemic with the \u201cforest bathing\u201d activity in Baguio City, inviting locals and tourists to take a walk in the forest, under the trees, and commune with nature.<\/p>\n
She said the Cordillera offers perfect wellness tourism with its arts, culture, nature and adventure offerings all put together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you commune with nature, immerse with the people, you feel relaxed because you get a new idea. It gives a refreshing feeling when you see the natural beauty of the environment and the hospitality of the people in the Cordillera,\u201d she added. (PNA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DOT-CAR invites traditional massage therapists to explore opportunities in wellness tourism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":256343,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-travel"],"zyndk8_nxtgen_metadata":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=256342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/256343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=256342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=256342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=256342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}