‘Andaming private companies na nago-offer ng ganito and it costs over millions…now that we have our own developers, it’s free—we take pride in them’ - Kalinga-PTO Ngao-i on AI tourism app

Tabuk City, Kalinga – The Provincial Tourism Office (PTO) expressed pride and optimism over the province’s adoption of its locally developed AI tourism application, “ALAPUAP,” highlighting its cost-saving benefits and homegrown innovation.

During the Sangguniang Panlalawigan regular session on May 5, Supervising Tourism Operations Officer Lorraine Ngao-i emphasized that the project forms part of the tourism office’s information dissemination campaign, where tourism officers will input the data to be used by the app.

The system can also pull information from other online sources, although ensuring accuracy remains a challenge. To address this, Ngao-i said that only verified information related to tourism is being entered into the system.

“So yung information fed into the app is part of the information dissemination campaign po ng tourism office. This initiative is part of the duties of the tourism office, so the information that will be uploaded is for public consumption din, so hindi niya sakop yung mga sensitive information about our province. These are information regarding the tourism sector. For example, if you want to visit Awichon Village in Lubuagan, the developers will only upload the destination, the description of Awichon, and the like,” she said.

The tourism officer added that several private companies had previously offered similar services to the province at costs amounting to millions of pesos. However, through the efforts of Kalinga State University developers—BSIT students Mark Alvin M. Pugal, Joselyn A. Tayab, and Ranee Mae O. Awingan—the province now has access to the system free of charge.

On the part of the provincial government, Ngao-i said plans are underway to hire the student developers under a Contract of Service (COS) or Job Order arrangement, with Governor James Edduba expressing support for their absorption into the workforce.

“The good thing in this is—andaming private companies na nag-o-offer sa atin ng ganito and it costs over millions, but now that we have our own developers, it’s free and yun naman ang counterpart ng KSU. And on our part naman sa government, naka-graduate na itong mga students and we will absorb them sa manpower, or sila na ang mag-ooperate under COS or Job Order—we really take pride in them. The governor nag-commit naman na they will absorb these students under a COS,” she said.

The adoption of the ALAPUAP AI tourism app is seen by the PTO as a major step toward modernizing tourism services in Kalinga while reducing operational costs. With continued support from the provincial government, the system is expected to improve how tourism information is managed and shared with the public.