Tiopes disclose on lack of tourist guides in the region
TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Tourism (DOT) is set to conduct a tour guiding course as a way to encourage more tour guides in the region.
Karina Rosa Tiopes, the DOT regional director, said that there is a need to train and hire more tour guides in the region to address the lack of tour guides, especially now with the reopening of the tourism sector after almost three years of hiatus due to the coronavirus disease(COVID-19) pandemic.
“We lack regional tour guides. Those that we have trained before either left Eastern Visayas to be employed elsewhere (while) others did not renew their accreditation,” she said.
“With this training, we aim to build a new pool of trained, professional regional tour guides,” Tiopes added.
She asked local government units and tour operators to identify and endorse potential trainees.
The tour guide training course will just be a 30-day training though Tiopes have yet to disclose it’s scheduled.
Tiopes said that any individual may take the course as long as they are 18 years old and at least 2nd-year college with training conducted in various approaches such as group dynamics, lecture-discussion, written and practical exercises, technical tour, and research work.
They will also undergo training in Filipino ‘brand of service excellence,’ develop their communication skills, practical application of tour guiding techniques, tourist safety and first aid, familiarization tour, mock tour, industry immersion, and actual tour.
They will also study Philippine history and folklore, environmental concerns and protection, current issues, music and dance, geography including flora and fauna, protocols, etiquettes and social graces, Philippine architecture and heritage sites, among others.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
