The Local Government Unit of Sariaya and the Sariaya Tourism Council (STC), in cooperation with the UP Asian Institute of Tourism and its academe-based partners in the Sariaya Community Empowerment Reseach Team (Colleges of Architecture, Home Economics, Human Kinetics and Music) held a Capability-Building Seminar and Planning Workshop on Sustainable Community-based Tourism. The four-day live-in activity held on November 19-22, 2008 at the Villa del Prado Pool and Beach Resort was done to facilitate the creation of a comprehensive five-year tourism plan for Sariaya.

Weeks prior to the beneficial undertaking, consultations were facilitated by the Sariaya LGU and the STC with Dean Corazon Rodriguez and Prof. Antonio Lazaro of the UP Asian Institute of Tourism, wherein the necessary arrangements were transmitted through e mailed messages to Eric J. Dedace. When Dean Corazon Rodriguez came here on November 6 to gather some data on her paper about “Pro Poor Tourism” from the Municipal Department of Social Welfare (MSWD) , the Municipal Agriculture Office and the Rural Health Unit (RHU), Sariaya Tourism Officer-designate Ms. Arlene Palabrica  took the opportunity to discuss the matter with her, as well as the plan to integrate the five-year tourism program with the results obtained by the Sariaya Community Empowerment Research Team since they started the landmark project in December 2006. Likewise, she talked to Prof. Lazaro and requested him to come up with the program for the workshop to determine the important requirements and considerations to be worked out. Meanwhile, the Activity Design for the undertaking was drafted and finalized for the necessary funding, just as the letters of invitation were sent to the various sectors of Sariayahin society considered as the stakeholders, whose involvement and participation are paramount to the success of the endeavor.