Friday, March 30, 2007 Tourism exec seeks okay of city dep’t By Rimaliza Opiña
WITH tourism as one of leading sources of income for Baguio, Tourism Officer Benedicto Alhambra asked anew for the creation of a separate department that would cater solely to tourism issues.
The present tourism office has three personnel and is under the Office of the City Administrator of the mayor’s office.
Although the creation of a tourism department has been made part of the medium-term development plan of the city, Alhambra said this is still under status quo.
Having a separate department that would oversee the entire operation of the tourism industry would require the creation of divisions in charge of administration, planning and operations.
To recall, even the Department of Tourism here called for the creation of a separate department so that projects relating to the tourism industry is handled by only one office assisted by the private sector.
To compensate for the lack of needed personnel, groups that are in the hospitality industry formed an organization like the Baguio Tourism Council and the Baguio Conventions and Visitors Bureau, which assists the local government in coming up with tourism come-ons and to further promote the city as a tourist destination.
