Wednesday, October 15, 2008 Tourism group, school to help Cebu students
TOURISM is not a passive sector.
This idea moved a tourism industry official to set up a group of schools and agencies to strengthen the sector.
The Tourism Educators and Movers (Team) Philippines, organized by of National Association of Independent Travel Agencies Philippines Inc. (Naitas) chairman emeritus Robert Lim Joseph, involves 15 deans, professors, airline company officials, Naitas representatives and government officials, among others.
“We want to develop skills training, like communication improvement, and to correct wrong values to boost the confidence of tourism industry players, including students,” said Joseph, also the Philippines’ honorary consul to the Republic of Latvia.
Team aims to “speed up” projects between the private sector and the academe, such as tourism facilities that can be used in training students. The group also aims address the lack of tourism teachers and teacher training, said Joseph.
Team supports the programs and projects of the League of Tourism Students (LTS) of the Philippines, which Joseph helped form last year.
Last Oct. 11, LTS held its first convention where resource speakers from the tourism industry shared knowledge that students can use to prepare them for challenges in the tourism industry.
LTS aims to assist tourism students acquire the skills and talents necessary to become better service providers. It has about 40 member-schools nationwide, 11 of which are in Cebu. (NRC)
