History and technology merge as one walks through Cebu City’s heritage sites this Sinulog

A youth volunteer explains to her senior citizen tour buddy how to scan the QR code on the interactive marker at the Heritage of Cebu Monument in Barangay Parian, Cebu City.

CEBU CITY, Philippines— As the festivities of Sinulog officially starts Friday, January 10, 2020, the Cebu Archdiocesan Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church, Smart Communications, Inc. and InnoPub Media initiated a heritage walk around the historical sites in the downtown area of Cebu City.

Instead of plainly listening to a guide, the tour participants, composed of 10 pairs of senior citizens and youth volunteers, were equipped with their smartphones that were ready to scan the interactive markers installed at the sites.

The interactive markers, equipped with quick response (QR) codes, direct the tourists to a webpage containing information about the site.

The heritage walk is part of Smart’s Digital Evangelization, an expansion of its digital tourism initiatives, leading to the 2021 quincentennial celebrations.

Ramon Isberto, the head of Smart Communications Public Affairs Group, said the concept of digital tourism program was to integrate technology in promoting the story of the people through its culture and history.

“It starts from the interest in historical and cultural tourism. We have tourism programs, but the very visible ones are beaches and that is only one part of the story. If you want to enrich your tourism, you should tell the story of the people also: history, culture and tradition,” Isberto told CDN Digital.

The interactive markers, Isberto said, would enable tourists to learn about the story behind a heritage site even if they would not have a tour guide.

“The idea here is how we promote our sites… How can the tools that we have be useful for that purpose? It’s like a DIY (do it yourself) tour because not everybody has a tour guide. How do you make the next best experience of that,” he said./dbs