BOAC, Marinduque – Marinduque is retraining its tour guides to shift from delivering facts to creating immersive travel experiences, as the province prepares to host the Philippine Experience next month.
The three-day training, supported by the Department of Tourism Mimaropa, gathered accredited tour guides, tourism officers, and industry stakeholders from across the island from April 21 to 23 at the Argi E-hub Provincial Agriculture office building.
The session is part of preparations for the May 20 to 22 tourism event, which will showcase Marinduque to a national audience. Organizers said the training aims to help frontliners deliver experiences that go beyond traditional guided tours.
Paul John Hernandez, founder of The Traveling Salakot and lead trainer of the Makanayon program, led the sessions as a follow-up to an earlier workshop held in February.
He told participants that tour guiding should move past information delivery and focus on meaning-making.
“What great storytelling is important in tour guiding?” he asked during the training, urging guides to turn facts into experiences that visitors can remember.
Discussions on the first day focused on scripting and storytelling, with participants asked to reflect on their own travel experiences, including the guide’s style, the emotions involved, and the lessons learned.
Hernandez said guides must create emotional connections, sustain attention, and communicate the culture and identity of a place. This, he said, supports experience-based and responsible tourism.
The final day covered social graces, including how guides handle arrivals, complaints, and departures. Participants shared their own approaches and discussed different types of tourist behavior to better prepare for real-world situations.
Attendees included representatives from the towns of Boac, Gasan, Santa Cruz, Torrijos, and Buenavista, along with members of the Marinduque Tour Guides Association, tourism students, and local businesses such as Dream Favor Travel and Tours and Balar Hotel and Spa.
Tourism officials see the training as key to positioning Marinduque as a destination that offers not just sights, but stories that visitors can connect with.
