PALO, Leyte- Today’s tourists are not just travelling to destinations to see tourist assets but more so to be educated as well.
Thus said Tourism Undersecretary Alma Rita de los Reyes- Jimenez who was the guest speaker during a regional gathering among tourism stakeholders held this town on Wednesday (December 14).
“In tourism, people are not anymore looking for sites to visit. People are more interested to know what people are doing when visiting a place; what stories are being told and what kind of culture can be imbibe,” Jimenez said during an interview.
Jimenez disclosed that today’s tourists can be classified into two: the millennial market which constitutes 35 percent of the total market and the silver market or those 55 years and above, which constitutes the remaining percentage of the market.
And both markets should be tapped by the market, Jimenez.
“The millennials want mission, they want to visit places that has significant culture in terms of heritage, we even had what’s called last chance tourism and bucket list tourism,” Jimenez said.
“We should recognize how the DNA of tourism is changing; how do we as destinations adopt to this kind of changes; how do we configure our products and services to appeal to the market that we want, these are the things to be considered” the DOT official.
However, Jimenez emphasized that the most important thing that they want to consider is not disrupt the lives of the communities.
“We don’t want to force the communities to change because of tourism,” she added.
Meantime, DOT Regional Director Karina Rosa Tiopes said that the gathering, held at the Oriental Hotel, this town, aim to draw the target of the tourism industry in the region for the next six years.
(LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
