There is a great Filipino story in every local destination. Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo enjoined tour guides and other members of the travel and tourism sector to tell these great stories behind the country’s diverse destinations—highlighting the rich Filipino heritage, culture, traditions and values.
She made this appeal at the recent Eight National Tour Guides Convention and General Assembly, held at Hotel Jen in Manila.
“Go beyond the usual training on customer service. Tour-guide training should be able to empower all of you on how to tell the story of your destinations. You know your destinations better, and these stories must come from you. Take ownership of these stories,” she said.
In a news statement, the DOT chief also disclosed that she has instructed the agency’s regional offices to fund the continuous training of tour guides all over the country as soon as possible. The government agency has allocated P1.2 million for its three-pronged training program for tour guides, which covers a regional tour-guiding course, continuing education and community-guiding seminar.
As of February 2016 a total of 49 applicants from the National Capital Region (NCR) have applied for the regional tour-guiding course, 16 of whom took the course and eight are on the waiting list for the second training session.
The DOT projects the number of applicants to rise this year compared to 2016, which only saw a total of 44 newly accredited tour guides, 20 of whom were from the NCR and 22 from the Cordillera Administrative Region.
According to the DOT web site, there are 1,007 tour guides nationwide who are accredited with the government.
Teo emphasized that tour guides must share with visitors not just the information about a destination that is available on the Internet, but they should instead tell more personal Filipino narratives about the place.
“If our guests and visitors find the stories interesting and inspiring, they will stay longer, contribute to the local economy more and see the Philippines differently,” she added.
The convention gathered travel and tours stakeholders from both public and private sectors, including delegates from the Southeast Asia Tourist Guides Association and the 350 members of the Philippine Federation of National Tour Guides from all over the country.