Tourism chief to meet officials, stakeholders

CEBU - Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco said they will conduct “listening tours” across the country starting as part of their strategy to better connect with stakeholders and to employ a shared tourism governance approach towards industry recovery.

“I will be starting my listening tour as the Secretary of the Department of Tourism to see for myself and to hear the challenges faced by our regional offices and tourism stakeholders across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.”

“The objective being to be at the front and center of the prevailing issues that need to be addressed and to craft solutions that will ensure the full rehabilitation and recovery of the tourism industry,” Frasco said.

Frasco expressed her gratitude to the officials and employees of the Department of Tourism for their hard work and unceasing dedication during the pandemic and for giving her a warm welcome during her initial visit and organizational meetings recently.

“I am fully aware of the service and the sacrifice of our frontliners not only in health, not only in the executive branch of government, in the local government units, but also in the Department of Tourism. Because, notwithstanding the challenges of the pandemic, the work had to continue if only to ensure that our brothers and sisters whose livelihood depend on tourism would be shielded from the economic impact that the pandemic has left in its wake,” she said.

“To all of you that have continued the good work of the Department of Tourism, whether you are in the central office or in the regional offices all over the country, I thank you. Salamat kaayo sa inyong serbisyo ug sakripisyo taliwala sa tanang kalisod,” she added.

Frasco also underscored the importance of being in touch with the realities on the ground in addition to focusing on the crafting of national policy.

“We foresee a Department of Tourism that is not only focused on the crafting of national policy but, more importantly, to be in touch with the realities on the ground, to give attention to sites, peoples, products that have not necessarily been given equal opportunity to be developed, to reach out to all regional offices, all of our partners in the local government units, to extend to them the hand of collaboration from the Department of Tourism, and to send across the message that we are here to help the industry arise and recover,” Frasco said.

She said this collaborative and consultative approach is in alignment with the overall vision of President Bongbong Marcos for the tourism industry to become one of the major economic pillars for the country under his administration.

Frasco appealed for the support of the DOT workforce behind the President’s directive.

“We must not only continue to do the work that we have been doing, but we must exert extra effort to give everything that we can within what is humanly possible, to ensure that our Department becomes one of the major economic contributors in the Marcos administration,” Frasco stressed.

“I have full trust in the workforce of the Department of Tourism because you have been forged in the fire of the pandemic. We’ve been through it, we have survived, and we have thrived. There is no other challenge that we could not possibly surmount,” she added. (Cebu Examiner)