Enough funding and technical assistance have been poured in to top tourist destinations in the country including Boracay and so it is high time to extend the same to a lot of other areas that need support in terms of developing their human resources to achieve inclusive growth in the tourism industry, according to a Department of Tourism official.
Tourism Standards & Regulations Director Maria Rica Bueno presented on Thursday during a one-day orientation at a local hotel here the Tourism Skills Development Program of the government to participants coming from Negros Oriental and Siquijor.
Participants included resort operators and owners of various tourism establishments, community organizations, and homestay providers, among others.
Director Bueno said the present administration is putting a premium value on people as key elements in achieving competitive success by upgrading the skills and competencies of the industry workforce.
That is why it is partnering with training institutions and the academe to develop a curricula and materials to make their programs more responsive to the ever-changing needs of the tourism industry.
A special fund of P100 million is given by the Department of Budget & Management for the DOT to utilize P85 million of the amount for the conduct of such trainings nationwide and P15 million for the rest of the activities in the program implementation.
Negros Oriental is fortunate to be one of the areas that will benefit in the trainings being a priority area due to a high poverty incidence of more than 49 percent per record of the Philippine Statistics Office from 2006-2012.
According to Director Bueno, the program will prioritize extending assistance to areas that would have high tourism traffic that are still opening up and would not have received assistance or funding support from the government in the past.
It is open to micro, small and medium scale enterprises that are accredited with the DOT stakeholders in beach tourism, nature tourism, cultural tourism, education tourism, marine and diving tourism, as well as meetings, incentives, conventions, conferences and events.
The online bidding process for qualified training providers is going on while schedule of implementation is in May this year. (PNA/jfp/Juanco Gallarde)
