Former Tourism Secretary Mina Gabor, founder of the International School of Sustainable Tourism (ISST), and architect Emmanuel “Manny” Miñana, principal of EA Miñana & Associates, are organizing a five-day ecotourism workshop with Architect Hitesh Mehta, world-renowned environmental planner and landscaper, on March 2-6 at Hall 1 of Center for International Trade Exhibitions and Missions (Citem).

Theme of the workshop is “The Design of Ecotourism Facilities: A Window to the Natural World.” Focus will be on ecolodge planning and design: the heart of ecotourism.

The workshop is timely, as the Department of Tourism now has the five-year National Tourism Development Plan in place, and together with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, has also completed the five-year National Ecotourism Strategy. This is done in collaboration with ISST.

Mehta founded his firm HM Design (h-m-design.com) in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1990 as a traditional architecture and landscape architectural practice. HM Design is now based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and has metamorphosed into a specialty ecoplanning and ecodesign firm.

He has built projects in over 55 countries spanning six continents, and is an international, multi-award winner in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, environmental planning, urban planning and design, interior design and photography.

Gabor and Miñana are spearheading the workshop/conference and have invited the Philippines’ various developers, hospitality operators and landowners, along with the country’s respected architects, designers and planners, to help prime the tourism industry, while the government builds its PPP infrastructure and road projects.

This watershed conference will influence the future of the country’s ecotourism industry, helping to bring more awareness to environmental protection and conservation, livelihood creation and the preservation of cultural diversity in the Philippine countryside.

Citem is at the Golden Shell Pavilion, ITC Complex, Roxas Boulevard cor. Gil J. Puyat Avenue, Pasay City