The Walking Tour Incubator with Gabe Mercado

Climate: Cool highland Season: Wet season

With meraki travel collection · Learning & exploration

The Walking Tour Incubator with Gabe Mercado

Turn the Baguio detail you cannot stop thinking about into a walking tour you have tested twice with real people.

28-day incubator · Three online checkpoints + three-day Baguio intensive · Baguio · Monday, September 21, 2026

Apply for a Place

Before you apply

Know what you are choosing

Review the experience, participation expectations and application process before sending your application.

Is this experience for you?

This is for the person who notices something other people keep walking past.

You might be a designer, artist, researcher, writer, performer, educator, community member, history enthusiast, creative practitioner—or simply someone who knows a particular part of Baguio closely.

Guiding experience is not required.

You should apply if you have a specific Baguio story, place, detail or question you want to investigate; are willing to research beyond what you already know; can participate in the full program; and are prepared to receive honest feedback and change your work.

This is not designed as a passive workshop, professional-tour-guide certification or shortcut to a finished commercial tour.

What unfolds

NOTICE

Begin with something specific in Baguio that you cannot stop thinking about.

RESEARCH

Investigate the story more deeply. Walk the place. Look again. Ask questions. Identify the people you may need to speak with before telling the story responsibly.

SHAPE

Across three online checkpoints, begin turning your material into a walk: what people encounter, in what sequence, and what question or perspective holds it together.

BUILD

During the Baguio intensive, work on the route through fieldwork, workshop time and facilitated development.

TEST

Take real people through the walk.

Observe where they become curious, confused, engaged or disconnected. Gather feedback.

REBUILD

Revise what you made from evidence rather than assumption—then test the walk again.

You leave with a walking tour that has been tested at least twice, rather than an idea that has only existed on paper.

What is included

Your participation includes:

● Three facilitated online checkpoints

● Research and fieldwork guidance

● In-person workshop and route-development sessions in Baguio

● Live testing of your walking tour at least twice

● Structured feedback and revision

● Facilitation led by Gabe Mercado

● Participant coordination and communications

Not included: meals, accommodation, and transportation to, from, or within Baguio. Participants are responsible for arranging and covering these separately.

Access and considerations

The in-person portion includes walking, fieldwork and live route testing in Baguio.

Because individual routes are still being developed, final distances, terrain, meeting points and route-specific accessibility conditions cannot yet be confirmed.

Applicants with accessibility or participation requirements are encouraged to include them in their application so these can be considered before accepting a place.

How applications work

1 · Apply by 11 September

Tell us about the Baguio detail, place, story or question you want to explore and why you want to turn it into a walk.

2 · Applications are reviewed

This is a selected cohort rather than a first-come, first-served booking. Gabe Mercado makes the final cohort selection.

3 · Receive your decision by 18 September

Applicants will be informed whether they are accepted, waitlisted or not selected.

4 · Confirm your place

Accepted regular participants confirm through the ₱5,500 participation fee. Accepted scholarship participants confirm through the scholarship agreement.

5 · Begin on 21 September

The cohort enters the three-checkpoint development period before gathering in Baguio from 16–18 October.

Terms & policies

Please review before booking

Application and selection
The Incubator has 10 places: 5 Baguio-local scholarship places and 5 regular places at ₱5,500. Submitting an application does not guarantee or reserve a place. Final participant selection is made by Gabe Mercado.

Program commitment
Selected participants must be available for the three online checkpoints on September 21, September 28 and October 5, 2026, and the in-person Baguio intensive on October 16–18, 2026. Participants will research, develop and test one Baguio walking experience at least twice.

Regular places — ₱5,500
Accepted regular-track participants must pay the ₱5,500 program fee within 24 hours of acceptance. The place is secured only after payment is confirmed.

Baguio-local scholarships
Five selected Baguio-local participants receive scholarships covering the ₱5,500 program fee. Scholarship recipients must commit to the full Incubator and two free public runs of their developed walk within one year after the program.

What is not included
Transportation, accommodation, food and personal materials are not included in either the regular fee or scholarship and remain the participant's responsibility.

Withdrawals and transfers
Change-of-mind withdrawals after payment are non-refundable. Places cannot be transferred to another person because participants are individually selected. If the organizer cancels the program or makes a material change an affected paid participant does not accept, the applicable program fee will be refunded.

Routes, weather and participation
The Incubator involves walking, fieldwork and live testing. Routes, timings and activities may change due to weather, access, safety or local conditions. Participants are expected to respect residents, contributors, private property and any photography, recording or access restrictions.

Privacy and documentation
Application information is used for selection, administration and delivery. Participation does not automatically give permission for identifiable photographs, video, quotations or personal stories to be used for marketing.

Agreement
By applying, you confirm that you have reviewed the program dates, fee or scholarship conditions, participation requirements and these Terms & Policies. A place becomes confirmed only after the applicable payment or scholarship acceptance step is completed.

Your host

Gabe Mercado

Convenor and Lead Facilitator

Gabe Mercado is a performer, storyteller, facilitator and creative educator with more than three decades of experience across theater, improvisation and learning. He founded SPIT and helped pioneer improvisational theater in the Philippines.

His relationship with walking tours is also personal: Carlos Celdran entrusted Gabe with performing his iconic Walk This Way Intramuros tour, and Gabe later led its final tribute staging following Celdran’s passing.

That combination of storytelling, place, performance, curiosity and learning through live audiences informs how Gabe facilitates The Walking Tour Incubator.

Impact Passport

How this experience was designed

Specific choices, relationships and responsibilities for this experience.

01

Local value

Five of the ten cohort places are reserved as scholarships for Baguio locals.

Scholarship participants commit to the full incubator and to running their developed walk twice for free within one year.

02

Cultural care

Participants are expected to consider who they need to speak with before telling a story responsibly, particularly where their walk involves other people, communities, histories or lived experiences.

The incubator does not treat a single storyteller’s perspective as representing an entire community.

Our design framework is informed by the GSTC Tour Operator and Hotel Standards. The Impact Passport is a transparent design and reporting tool; it is not a claim of GSTC certification.

Apply for a Place