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Thursday, April 06, 2006
Tourism job fair records 33T vacancies in sector
By Aurelia l. Castro
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Tourism Secretary Joseph “Ace” Durano yesterday declared a success the first Tourism Jobs Fair (TJF), which gathered some 33,000 jobs.
“The success of this event can be measured by the number of jobs that is available in the industry. I didn’t expect to have 33,000 job positions that would be filled up in the next few weeks,” he said in a press interview during the opening of the TJF.
The 33,000 vacancies can be found in Cebu, Davao and Manila, he said. Since the TJF is an online strategy, applicants have access to available jobs regardless of location, he added.
First
“Applicants here in Cebu can check out jobs in Manila and Davao,” he said.
The TJF in Cebu, Davao and Manila this month is DOT’s first industry-specific “all year-round” jobs fair, which is exclusive to the travel and tourism industries.
“We came up with this program because last year, the (tourism) industry started expanding. But industry players had a hard time finding personnel to fill up positions. They ended up pirating workers from one another, which is not good,” Durano said.
Pirating of workers happened because new graduates cannot be employed right away, he said.
“When (companies) hire new graduates, they still have to train the (recruits) and equip them with needed skills. We want to help improve the employability of our new graduates. So industry pla-yers are happy with this program,” he said.
Growth
The industry expansion, which creates more jobs, is a result of two years of double-digit growth, Durano said.
“Last year, we (had) 2.613 million foreign tourist arrivals, which is an unchartered territory for the 20 years of the DOT (Department of Tourism).
And for the first two months of this year, we grew by 17 percent — the first time in the country’s tourism history that before the end of the first quarter, we exceeded 500,000 foreign tourists,” he said.
Job maker
He added that the National Anti-Poverty Commission came out with a report that tourism was the biggest generator of employment last year with a growth rate of 14.5 percent.
“We have 17 percent growth in the first two months of this year. If we can maintain that momentum, this is going to be another banner year for DOT,” he said.
At present, the tourism industry has 2.2 million direct and indirect workers.
Employment in the sector grew with the increase in the number of foreign tourist arrivals in the country to 2.613 million last year from 2.29 million in 2004, generating $2.12 billion in dollar receipts.
The DOT chief also said the Commission on Higher Education has to incorporate more practical skills in the curriculum.
“Two important skills needed right now in HRM (hotel and restaurant management) are language skills (Japanese, Korean, Mandarin and Russian) and real work experience (for students) before graduating,” Durano said.
Employers
He pointed out that hotels are more than willing to hire. “Shangri-la alone now needs 100 people,” he said.
As of yesterday, the TJF had 101 exhibitors and employers with 8,391 job vacancies and 5,900 pre-registered participants.
Jobs that were made available at the fair included those from airlines, shipping and transport firms, hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, travel agencies, tour operators, resorts and destinations, banks, food processors, beverage manufacturers, tele-com firms, call centers, tourism-oriented property developers, and government offices and corporations.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (April 6, 2006 issue)
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