DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The Department of Tourism (DOT) said improving the skills of human resources in the tourism sector will play a major role in keeping up with the growth of tourist arrivals each year.
DOT Undersecretary Alma Rita Jimenez said the country will have challenge in providing “high quality experience” to tourists if it fails to meet the rising demand for skilled manpower.
“We keep on losing our people and we have to keep on hiring new ones. There are many people but are not skilled and that has a very bad effect on tourism experience because we’re stuck on learning curb,” Jimenez said.
Jimenez heads the agency’s Tourism Regulation, Coordination, and Resource Generation unit.
To address the concerns on human resource, she said the industry needs to reach out and empower employees of the tourism stakeholders and businesses.
“This is actually the time that we identify the skills that are lacking in the industry and the time to acquire the competencies and skills to training programs that will try and narrow the gap between what is required and what is available at this time,” Jimenez said.
At least 5.8 million or 12.8 percent out of the employed population belonged to the tourism sector in 2016, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority revealed, a 5.1 percent increase compared from 5 million in 2015.
On Wednesday, August 30, DOT authorities along with three tourism stakeholders in Davao region signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to formally start the implementation of DOT’s Tourism Industry Skills Program (TSIP).
The program aims to empower employees by conducting various human capacity building trainings for the industry enterprises nationwide.
Davao region has about of 250 trainees from Leticia by the Sea Consortium, Eden Mountain Resort, Inc. and Guide Union for Inbound and Eco-tours destination (GUIDE) Davao for the first round of training.
The government has allocated a total of P100 million for the implementation of TSIP for this year. Some 30,000 to 40,000 employees will be trained in various fields such as basic first aid and life support training, beach resort operations, open water diving course, system repair and maintenance, foreign language course, among others. (davaotoday.com)