The Negros Oriental Tourism Board has been tasked to identify new potential destinations for domestic and foreign travelers visiting this part of the Central Visayas region.

Woodrow Maquiling Jr., Tourism Board executive director and concurrent Provincial Tourism Council, on Wednesday said the program is in line with Governor Manuel “Chaco” Sagarbarria’s thrust to expand the province’s tourism industry.

“The governor will focus his administration on developing new tourism programs, especially in the northern portion of the province, specifically in the first district,” Maquiling told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).

He added that the provincial government wants to ensure that the development of tourism in the province is “not contained and restricted in the second and third districts”, he added.

At a tourism stakeholders’ meeting held recently, Maquiling said some quarters raised concerns about why the first district was “left behind” in the province’s tourism promotions.

“There are lots of potentials in Negros Oriental that have yet to be discovered and so we are looking at how we can actually bring them into motion in the tourism sector,” Maquiling said.

On Thursday and Friday, the tourism official said he will lead a team, including travel guides and tour operators, for an ocular inspection of potential destinations in Canlaon City in the first district.

These include rice terraces, waterfalls, and even the existing tourism draws like the centuries-old Balete tree, which can be developed further to lure more tourists.

The Hinakpan “chocolate hills” in Guihulngan City, which is also in Negros Oriental’s first district, will be among the new potential areas in the province that will be included in the province’s tourism package. (PNA)