30/04/2026
๐ผ๐ก๐ก ๐๐๐ฉ๐ค๐ง๐จ ๐ง๐๐ข๐๐๐ฃ ๐๐ฆ๐ช๐๐ก๐ก๐ฎ ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ค๐ง๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐ฉ ๐๐ฃ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ฅ๐ง๐ค๐๐๐จ๐จ ๐ค๐ ๐ฉ๐ง๐๐ฃ๐จ๐๐ค๐ง๐ข๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ฃโ๐๐ก๐ก ๐ข๐ช๐จ๐ฉ ๐๐ ๐ข๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ช๐ก๐ก๐ฎ ๐๐ฃ๐๐ก๐ช๐๐๐ ๐๐ฃ ๐ฃ๐๐๐ค๐ฉ๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐จ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐๐ก๐ค๐๐ช๐๐จ ๐ฉ๐ค๐ฌ๐๐ง๐ ๐ข๐ค๐ง๐ ๐๐ฃ๐๐ก๐ช๐จ๐๐ซ๐ ๐ฉ๐ค๐ช๐ง๐๐จ๐ข ๐๐ฃ ๐ฉ๐ค๐ช๐ง๐๐จ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ค๐ข๐ข๐ช๐ฃ๐๐ฉ๐๐๐จ.
Congratulations to our BA Communication seniors: Hannah Gresha Abayon, Alyssa Sofia Agdon, and Andre John Tagra for their successful Thesis Defense on their undergraduate study entitled, โTracing Transformation: An Actor Network Analysis of the Touristification Process in Basdaku, Moalboal, Cebu.โ
Guided by Actor-Network Theory by Bruno Latour (1999), Michel Callon (1984), and John Law (1992), and visualized through an Actor-Network Analysis Diagram by Payne (2016), their study examined how communicative interactions among human actorsโlocals, tourists, tourism officers, business owners, tricycle drivers, tour guides, and government employeesโand non-human actors such as the coast, weather, sea activities, tourism policies, environmental userโs fee, and infrastructure shape the touristification process in Basdaku White Beach, Moalboal.
Grounding ANT as the theoretical and methodological lens, the study mainly asserts that touristification is not simply the result of policy implementation or economic development, but an emergent condition produced through continuous processes of translation, negotiation, enrolment, and resistance among interconnected actors.
Their findings reveal that communication shapes touristification as it flows from different directions: transforming the physical space from a coastal community into a beachfront destination for tourists, shifting the identities of ordinary residents into tourism workers, and rearticulating the everyday practices of locals according to the directives and logics of tourism.
Touristification, then, is not a finished result but a continuous and evolving process. The Local Government Unit and the Tourism Office emerge as the focal actors, communicating authority through ordinances and policies such as the Environmental Userโs Fee and the institutionalization of island hopping. Through these mechanisms, they establish themselves as the obligatory passage point for regulating, negotiating, and sustaining tourism, while tourists and locals continuously adjust their roles through everyday interactions, negotiations, and service exchanges.
However, stability in the network is never fully permanent. Service lapses such as unstable internet, water shortages, lack of health facilities, resistance to fees, rising prices, and the displacement of traditional livelihoods reveal moments of betrayal that destabilize and reconfigure relationships. In this sense, communication constitutes touristification through the never-ending stabilization and destabilization of roles that allow actors to coexist and sustain tourism as a functional and coherent system.
The researchers sincerely thank their Research Adviser, Dr. Crina E. Taรฑongon, for her mentorship and support throughout the research process. They also extend their gratitude to their panelists, Asst. Prof. Francis Luis Torres and Mr. Joselito โBoboiโ Costas, for their valuable insights and critical recommendations.
They call for more grounded, participatory, and sustainable tourism governanceโone that recognizes communication as the core mechanism through which tourism spaces are stabilized, contested, and continuously constructed.
