Bago City: 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.
According to Philippines News Agency, the 'Booming GREEN AGritOurism' or (BAGO) program was launched in 2018, aiming to maximize the potential of farmers while championing sustainability across three pillars: planet, people, and prosperity. GREEN stands for global, regenerative, empowered, equitable natural tourism. The city distinguished itself by demonstrating how climate-positive tourism has driven economic recovery and empowered local communities, as stated by senior tourism operations officer Mae Ann Furtos.
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 agroecological biodiversity and environmental practices. The initiative addresses issues such as low tourist arrivals, limited tourism initiatives, mass tourism threats, lack of sustainable tourism attractions, absence of a tourism destination marketing program, non-climate responsive tourist facilities, and diminishing cultural heritage.
The farm tours component includes farm tourism circuits, media familiarization tours, and collaborations with the Slow Food Community, emphasizing good, clean, and fair practices. The farmers weekend market, launched in December 2020 as the 'Farm to Park' market, has turned weekends into profitable opportunities for farmers and local sellers, tackling pandemic-related oversupply issues by promoting organic produce and local culinary arts.
Gastronomy tourism highlights Bago as an agri-industrial hub and the 'Rice Granary of Negros Occidental', focusing on food sufficiency and preservation of culinary heritage. Through the establishment of the BAGO program and its collaborations, tourist arrivals increased from 127,027 in 2021 to 199,047 in 2023. The city also established biodiversity and ecosystem-friendly tourism activities and programs and was recognized for its creative tourism 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-B¶rse (ITB) Berlin in Germany. In 2023, Bago City also received third place for its 'Reviving the Majestic Diversity of the Bago Watershed' project. The ITB Berlin Green Destinations Top 100 Story Awards celebrate inspirational initiatives for sustainable tourism development from stories submitted to the annual Green Destinations Top 100 Stories competition based in The Netherlands.
