Thursday, June 26, 2008 DOT, province to hold tour-guiding seminar
LINGAYEN -- Pangasinan has so many beaches and tourist destinations, yet it has only one licensed professional tour guide.
To address this, the Provincial Government, through its Tourism Operations Division (Topad) and the Department of Tourism (DOT) regional office, will conduct a 10-day seminar for tour guides.
Tourism is one of the priority programs of Governor Amado Espino Jr.
Topad and the DOT will conduct the 10-day Professional Tour Guiding Seminar and one-day practicum for trainees from July 23 to August 1, 2008. This will be held at the mezzanine room of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) provincial office.
Accordingly, there will be only 40 slots, and participants will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis.
The target participants are the tourism officers (or representative) of local government units (LGUs), Hotel and Restaurant and Tourism students or graduates, community leaders, out-of-school youths and interested individuals.
Upon application and completion of the course, trainees will be issued a corresponding license.
Chief Tourism Operations Officer Luisa Elduayan said the training's objective is to establish a pool of about 43 professional tour guides to provide tour guiding assistance and tour escorting to small groups.
Among the favorite and well-known tourist destinations in Pangasinan are the Our Lady of Manaoag in Manaoag, the Hundred Islands in Alaminos City, the beach resorts in Bolinao and Anda, and the Provincial Capitol grounds in Lingayen.
In other tourist areas, a tour guide earns a minimum of P300 to 500 per hour for regular tourists on a special pre-arranged rate.
Interested applicants to the tour-guiding seminar may register at the Provincial Tourism Operations Division at the Provincial Capitol compound. They can call the office at telephone number 542-6853 (and look for Maika N. Labaupa or Mr. Leo Jun Jugo) or email them at tourismpangasinan@yahoo.com. (LCMY/Sunnex)
