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On the DOT It's all about private sector initiative
The entire trip will be covered by still photographs and video footages. Considering the media participants are decision makers in their respective print outlets, the photos shall be published in Iloilo and Bacolod publications, thereby strongly boosting domestic tourism in this part of the country. The video footages shall be shown on SkyCable 13-Negros Info Channel's program “Spotlites” thereby informing Negrenses and visitors about local tourism. Top tour operators in Iloilo City are joining the tour for possible inclusion of Bacolod City in future tour package offerings to both foreign and domestic tourists in Western Visayas. Yehlen Camarista, Iloilo City's only licensed and DOT-accredited Tour Guide is joining the tour for familiarization of Bacolod City she being a frontline source of tourism information of foreign and domestic tourists and one of the country's unofficial Ambassadors of Goodwill. Toots' Jimenez invitation letter to my boss, Regional Director Edwin G. Trompeta says, “ we are inviting your Atty. Helen Camarista to be part of the entourage going to Bacolod as a representation of your Department of Tourism and she being a media figure herself in the Iloilo community .” I thank Mr. Jimenez for the invitation and Director Edwin Trompeta for approving my trip—no questions asked, as always the case. I'm excited about this trip. Not that I've not been to Bacolod City before because lately I've been visiting this very clean and beautiful city with my colleague Bernadine Palacios almost every other week. I'm into tourism marketing work therefore it's only proper that I know inside out the tourism product I'm pushing and this can be achieved only if I get myself involved in (with RD Trompeta's blessing, of course) the inspection of all tourism-oriented establishments in Western Visayas for DOT-accreditation purposes. This inspection job is the less glamorous and more low profile type of job in the DOT. It's also more tiring considering that some tourist establishments have their facilities in different buildings scattered in several hectares of land. But I'm not complaining. There's a task to do and it has to be done. Of course, it's also interesting to, in a manner of speaking, see, feel, smell, touch and taste the tourism industry of Western Visayas. We make sure that the pubic hair scattered in some sinks, frayed bath towels and dust pans and brooms placed near cooking utensils in some kitchens, staff members wearing rubber, sometimes bedroom slippers in the workplace among other deficiencies and wrong practices of tourism-oriented establishments are corrected. This is what we call “fixing the product” component of tourism development. On the other hand, we never fail to commend tourism establishments that keep their facilities immaculately clean and their staff very courteous and neat like Pendy's Restaurant in Bacolod City. We inspected TriCat-SuperCat 2002 last week while Palmas del Mar and Casino Filipino last year. They are all DOT-accredited establishments: Tricat/SuperCat 2002 as Tourist Water Transport, Palmas del Mar as Class “A” Resort and Casino Filipino Hotel as First Class Hotel and among the best Western Visayas region can offer to its residents and visitors. It would be interesting to view these DOT- accredited establishments from a different perspective—the media's. Oh, I love this job. While others are paid for doing work, I'm paid to enjoy life better! Do you still wonder why I don't retire, resign, transfer or at least take a leave of absence despite heavy workload and obscenely low pay? More next issue . . . |
