Author Topic: DOT regional director swears in tour guides  (Read 2014 times)

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DOT regional director swears in tour guides
« on: February 19, 2010, 11:04:55 AM »
DOT regional director swears in tour guides
 
Sunday Post: The new regional director of the Department of Tourism Region 7 Maria Rica C. Bueno flew from Manila last Wednesday to join the Bohol Island Tour Guides Association of the Philippines, Inc. (BITGAP) 11th Annual General Assembly at JJ’s Seafoods Village. Ms. Bueno attended the Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) in Subic, Pampanga and the Panglao Island Tourism Project meeting in Manila before she flew to Tagbilaran to be the keynote speaker at the tour guides assembly. She presented to the tour guides the new Tourism Act of 2009 and the thrusts and programs of her administration as the new DOT regional director. She was accompanied by DOT Region 7 Supervising Tourism Operations Officer Mrs. Rowena Lu Y. Montecillo. Every year, the DOT – accredited tour guides in Bohol who are members of BITGAP convene to update its members on the tourism industry as part of their continuing education program for members. 

Director Bueno revealed that BITGAP was the first tourism organization in the region to be presented with the new Tourism Act after the implementing rules have been approved. The DOT regional office, however, as part of their programmed activities in the first quarter of this year, will hold a series of presentations throughout the region in order for the industry players to be aware of the provisions of the new law. She emphasized the importance of a closer collaboration and harmonious relationship between her office and the tour guides’ group considering DOT’s limitations as a government agency handling tourism affairs which is the country’s, including Bohol’s, second top priority after agriculture. BITGAP members also shared with the regional director the problems that beset the tour guiding and Bohol’s tourism industry as a whole. BITGAP lamented the presence of non-DOT accredited tour guides known as “hupo-hupo” or colorum guides, tour operators patronizing or getting the services of these colorum guides and “tourist interpreters” who are actually conducting the actual guiding for tourists. Director Bueno was positive that with the new tourism law which requires all primary tourism entities including tour guides to be DOT-accredited, these problems can be addressed. BITGAP proposed that the existing non-accredited guides should be given a chance to legalize their practice by inviting them to be trained by attending the next tour guiding seminar and consequently get accredited. Aside from the concerns regarding tour guides, BITGAP president Danny Nazareno also presented the problems of tourism front liners with regards to local government units who are indiscriminately developing their areas for tourism purposes with utter disregard for standards and sustainable development principles. Nazareno, having served as the Philippine Tarsier Foundation’s Executive Director during the Foundation’s early years also stressed the need for the DOT to find a concrete solution in collaboration with concerned agencies like the DENR on the proliferation of private “authorized” households or entities to display tarsiers for tourism purposes under very lamentable conditions outside of their natural habitats. Director Bueno stressed that all these concerns will be addressed by creating awareness and instilling the culture of tourism among industry players coupled with the proper implementation of the provisions of the new tourism act which will pave the way for the standardization of the industry. She revealed that DENR is one of the agencies which the DOT will work together to implement the provisions of the new tourism law.   

Other significant provisions of the new tourism law include the compulsory hiring of a tourism officer by a local government unit which has been identified as a tourism destination and the establishment of the Tourism Congress composed of tourism private sector stakeholders which will help in the planning and implementation of tourism standards, promotions and services. BITGAP is a member of the Tourism Congress.   

Director Bueno also inducted into office the new members of the Board of Trustees and executive officers headed by Nazareno, MA, as trustee/president; Ma. Gracia M. Tachado, trustee/vice-president; Marc Brain D. Mascariňas, trustee/secretary; Ramon Racel Loquellano, trustee/assistant secretary; Maria Caridad G. Acain, trustee/treasurer; Ronald H. Pantanosas, trustee/auditor; John Dominic C. Migrino and Fritzie Mae D. Zamora, trustees/press relations officers and Joseph Ruel Familar, trustee. Ms. Agnes Celeste Ytac was also chosen this year’s chairperson of the 11th Annual Provincial Tourism Quiz Committee.

Another continuing education activity during the assembly was an orientation on how the elections will be conducted this May using the automated system. Bohol Provincial COMELEC Supervisor lawyer Elizeo RZ Labaria explained the automated election to BITGAP members. He allayed fears brought about by changes in the conduct of the elections this year compared to the previous years. He emphasized that these changes only include the shading of the voters’ chosen candidates instead of writing their names and the automated counting of votes instead of the manual system. It will also provide a significantly faster transmission of election results as well as immediate declaration of winners in the next polls.

Celebrating its 11th year of service to Bohol’s tourism industry, the BITGAP general membership assembly approved activities for this year to celebrate the International Tourist Guides Day on February 21 and other activities including an environmental clean up drive at the man-made forest, holding of the first national tour guides convention in partnership with the Cebu Association of Tour Guides (CATG) and the Philippine Association of Accredited Tour Guides Lecturers Inc. (PAATGLI) in Manila. The national convention will be conducted after the realization of BITGAP’s initiative to establish a Philippine federation of tour guides associations with the two other organizations. 

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