UP Asian Institute of Tourism partners with MMSU for hosting of nat’l confab
By Ian Paul Villanueva
A landmark partnership is underway for MMSU as the leaders of the University of the Philippines Asian Institute of Tourism (UPAIT) paid a visit to the university on Tuesday, February 24, to discuss an offer to co-host the Philippine Research Conference on Tourism and Hospitality (PRCTH).
Composed of UPAIT Dean Giovanni Francis Legaspi alongside Prof. Reil Cruz, Ms. Milovy Baduria, and Ms. Maria Rose Manalo, the officials discussed their plans to partner with MMSU to hold the PRCTH this year in Ilocos Norte and to pursue a joint research program about world heritage sites.
For context, PRCTH is participated in by experts in the tourism and hospitality industry, including keynote speakers from around the world. It can be especially beneficial for local tourism research and serve to expose MMSU’s tourism and hospitality management students to higher-level research conferences. While PRCTH is organized by UPAIT, it has been held in some of its partner State Universities and Colleges (SUC) throughout the country for a number of years.
“We are exploring and expanding opportunities to work with other SUCs and other tourism stakeholders, and MMSU is one of them. This was the direction that we took for the past three years, and also assisting communities and the LGUs together with SUCs. We believe that the SUCs should be the ones helping the community,” Dean Legaspi remarked.
MMSU Vice President for Academic Affairs Aris Reynold Cajigal, who hosted the visitors, expressed the university’s openness to partnering with the UPAIT. “I would like to express our gratitude for choosing MMSU as your collaborator and partner in our future endeavors with the Tourism and Hospitality Management Department of CBEA. We pray for the success of our collaboration in either instruction, research, or even in extension and community engagement,” he said.
Until their visit on Tuesday, only initial exploratory meetings had been held between the UPAIT leaders and the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management of the MMSU College of Business, Economics, and Accountancy (CBEA), hence the significance of the meeting to discuss the planned partnerships in more detail.
Besides the planned research conference, UPAIT and MMSU also explored other potential areas of collaboration, such as curriculum development for the university’s BS Tourism and BS Hospitality Management programs, specialized agritourism in the City of Batac, and engagements with UNESCO.
As it stands, the collaboration is now only short of a memorandum of agreement to formalize partnerships between the two institutions.
Feb, 25, 2026 11:22:am
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