ABSTRACT
Sagada is known to many travelers as a beautiful paradise nestled in the mountains of the Cordillera in the northern part of the Philippines. This chapter examines, from the perspective of a participant in community activities, the strategies that this community is putting in place to recover some control over their economic and cultural destiny, and also documents the challenges confronting a participatory approach to tourism development. It reflects on spirituality and religious practices as important motivations in community activism, and their contribution to the harmonizing of the secular and the sacred, which is of interest to those secular tourists who express a desire for a spiritual experience. In Sagada today, large parts of the natural landscape are changing due to the construction of new tourist amenities. The people of Sagada hope that in the future cultural tourists in the Philippines will help US create more culturally sensitive approaches to local communities that safeguard both tangible and intangible heritage.
