The city of Bago in Negros Occidental has transformed its farmers into agripreneurs through the initiative called the “Regenerative Agritourism: Cultivating a Sustainable Future for Bago City” which was recognized as one of the global winners in the 2025 Green Destinations Stories Awards.

The story focuses on the “Booming GREEN AGritOurism” or (BAGO) program launched in 2018 that maximizes the potential of the farmers while championing sustainability across three pillars –planet, people and prosperity.

GREEN stands for global, regenerative, empowered, equitable natural tourism.

“The city stood out by showcasing how climate-positive tourism has driven economic recovery and empowered local communities,” senior tourism operations officer Mae Ann Furtos said in a statement on Monday.

The BAGO program introduced three components –Booming GREEN farm tours, farmers weekend market, and gastronomy tourism– which have positioned Bago as “a prime agritourism destination in the Philippines, recognized for its extraordinary agroecological biodiversity and exemplary environmental practices.”

It seeks to address issues such as low tourist arrivals, limited tourism initiatives, mass tourism threats, lack of sustainable tourism attractions, no established tourism destination marketing program, non-climate responsive tourist facilities, and diminishing cultural heritage.

The farm tours component involves the farm tourism circuits, featuring media familiarization tours and collaborations with Slow Food Community, emphasizing good, clean, and fair practices.

The farmers weekend market, which started in December 2020, was dubbed the “Farm to Park” market.

It turned weekends into profitable opportunities for farmers and local sellers, and tackled pandemic-related oversupply issues by promoting organic produce and local culinary arts.

The gastronomy tourism, which highlighted Bago as an agri-industrial hub and the “Rice Granary of Negros Occidental”, focuses on food sufficiency and preservation of culinary heritage.

Through the establishment of the BAGO program along with its collaborations and other achievements, the city was able to increase tourist arrivals from 127,027 in 2021 to 199,047 visitors in 2023.

It also established biodiversity and ecosystem-friendly tourism activities and programs, and was recognized for having one of the country’s top creative tourisms during the 1st Philippine Creative Tourism Congress in December 2023.

On March 4, the BAGO program was awarded third place in the Environment and Climate Category of the 2025 Green Destinations Top 100 Story Awards at the Internationale Tourismus-Börse (ITB) Berlin in Berlin, Germany.

In 2023, Bago City was also a third-place winner for its “Reviving the Majestic Diversity of the Bago Watershed” project.

The ITB Berlin Green Destinations Top 100 Story Awards showcase and celebrate the most inspirational initiatives for sustainable tourism development from stories submitted to the annual Green Destinations Top 100 Stories competition based in The Netherlands. (PNA)