‘CHALLENGING TIME TO LEAD’: New DOT-6 chief keeps focus on recovery

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

 

The Department of Tourism (DOT)-6’s new regional director on Tuesday touted various “key priorities” as part of the regional office’s focus on economic recovery from the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

COVID-19 took a toll on the region’s once-booming tourism industry, logging only 1,072,976 tourist arrivals in 2020, a drastic drop of 81.77 percent from 887,123 arrivals in 2019.

The region’s busiest tourism spot, Boracay Island in Malay, Aklan, welcomed a combined 354,106 visitors in 2020 until April 19, 2021, still a far cry by 82.60 percent from 2,034,599 in 2019.

In response to the economic effects of COVID-19 prevention measures, the DOT and the DOLE have allocated cash assistance via Republic Act No. 11494 (Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or “Bayanihan 2”).

As of April 16, 2021, a total of 90,862 workers from 2,501 tourism establishments across the region have applied for cash assistance, with 31,704 already receiving or scheduled to receive payments as of March 22, 2021, amounting to a total of P158.5 million out of P247.9 million allocated for Region 6.

Qualified tourism establishments in the region are also entitled to loan assistance from the Small Business Corporation’s “SB Cares” program.

Under the program, 37 establishments have already applied as of April 19, amounting to P17.8 million in loans already approved, and 28 have already received up to P9 million.

In a virtual press conference on April 20, DOT-6 officer-in-charge Cristine Mansinares said the regional office would continue with its tourism rehabilitation and recovery plan amid the pandemic.

Mansinares, a former Provincial Tourism Officer of Negros Occidental before joining DOT-6 as Chief Tourism Operations Officer, took over from Atty. Helen Catalbas who retired last week.

Catalbas served the DOT-6 helm for 8 years, after being with the agency for 44 years.

Mansinares called her new designation a “challenging time to lead the industry” citing the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects, and following in the footsteps of Catalbas, whose tenure as regional tourism chief she described as “hard to beat”.

She said that she will “try her best” to be a “democratic” leader and expressed openness to suggestions from the stakeholders and the public.

She added that like Catalbas, she will also focus on tourism industry recovery by boosting domestic tourism.

“We have set our rehab and recovery plan since last year under the leadership of Atty. Catalbas, and we are continuing on implementing these plans including the strategies to recover and survive this pandemic. It is a challenging time to lead this agency, considering that we have a lot of affected in the tourism workforce and tourism enterprises,” said Mansinares during a virtual press conference.

During the press conference, she stated several “key priorities” as part of the regional office’s strategy in keeping with its rehab and recovery plan, which include:

– a “digital transformation” with a regional micro-site to be launched and improvement of the DOT-6’s social media platforms to be able to attend to queries by tourists, industry stakeholders, and investors on a 24/7 basis;

– providing recommendation and assistance to local government units (LGUs) in adjusting key tourism sites to maintain safety and security of the tourism workforce and communities;

– guidance to LGUs in developing a Tourism Crisis Intervention Plan as part of their Local Tourism Development Plans (LTDPs), for crisis management, including health crises like pandemics such asCOVID-19; and

– continuity of the DOT’s four key functions amid the pandemic, which include tourism standards, marketing and promotions, planning and development, and training.

Mansinares also cited prioritizing “Slow Food” travel in Western Visayas, which is only the second region in the country where the Slow Food International network, based in Italy, will be establishing its presence.

The organization, which states in its description as “promot[ing] local food and traditional cooking”, had established itself in the Cordillera Administrative Region around 3 years ago.

Slow Food and DOT-6 are currently conducting a feasibility study to explore involvement of different members of the food tourism area.

As of this writing, there has only been one local Slow Food organization based within Negros Occidental.

Mansinares said she aims to build more Slow Food communities in Panay Island and Guimaras.

“Our main goal is really to involve our small-scale farmers, stakeholders, service providers around the region, as well as cooperatives involved in crops production and other related services that we can involve in the tourism circuit. We hope that Slow Food travel will enhance our awareness in the environment, biodiversity, and appreciation of Western Visayas’ gastronomy. More than the food itself, it will talk more about the connection of Western Visayans to our soil,” said Mansinares.

Breaking down the development of tourism within the region, she stated that she would continue the projects started by her predecessor, furthering key tourism products in Tourism Development Areas (TDAs) in the region’s 6 provinces and 2 highly-urbanized cities.

She cited an additional budget for the office to develop tourism products and training more tour guides in the region to serve smaller groups of tourists, still in line with response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are nine key tourism products in the DOT’s National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) for 2016-2022, in line with the Duterte administration’s Philippine Development Plan.

These are Sun and Beach Tourism, Nature and Adventure Tourism, Cultural Tourism, Health, Wellness, and Retirement Tourism, Meeting, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) Tourism, Cruise & Nautical Tourism, Education Tourism, Leisure and Entertainment Tourism, and Diving and Marine Sports Tourism.

In Region 6, the new tourism chief cited the following tourism products as priorities in the following TDAs:

– Nature-Adventure and Diving tourism in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental;

– Bike tourism in Iloilo City;

– Wellness staycation, Food crawl, and Bike tourism in Aklan;

– Water Tubing in Antique;

– Farm Tourism and Rebuilding tourism communities in Guimaras; and

– Diving and ecotourism in Northern Iloilo, Anini-y in Antique, Boracay Island, and Guimaras.

Mansinares said they will also open further engagements with the media as part of recovery and rehabilitation, citing as examples press conferences with media and LGUs on open tourism sites.

She said that journalists may suggest initiatives to maximize partnerships between the DOT-6 and the media industry.