As Cebu expects an influx of foreign tourists to continue, the Department of Tourism (DOT) 7 is doubling its efforts in training tour guides to be multilingual.
DOT 7 Director Joshur Judd Lanete II said it is not enough for tour guides to learn one foreign language other than English, given the expected surge of foreign tourists from across the globe.
He said that the opening of new airports in the islands of Mactan and Panglao alone would surely increase the arrivals in the region. Lanete announced that tour guides are now learning Mandarin, Russian, Korean, Japanese, and Thai.
“There are ongoing classes for these languages,” he said, adding that the agency, in collaboration with the private tourism stakeholders, is working to better prepare front-liners in the tourism industry.
Besides learning a foreign language, Cebu Association of Tour Specialists (Catos) president Alice Queblatin raised the need for tour guides and operators to be offer “experiential” tourism to both new and repeat tourists.
She said millennials, for instance, like to go beyond what they read or see on the Internet. They want to experience for themselves what they saw, read or heard about a destination.
“Cebu now is beyond sight-seeing. So front-liners also need to level up,” said Queblatin.
For instance, pointing out a carabao to a tourist won’t be enough. “You have to let them ride the carabao for them to better appreciate it,” she said.
Immersion, stories
“The new breed of travelers loves to join in-depth tours. Everything has to be interactive. There must be an immersion,” said added, noting that younger travelers are fond of collecting experiences.
Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo, in a tour guide convention in Manila last June, urged tour guides and other tourism front-liners to “tell the story of their destinations,” by sharing more personal stories about its people rather than just facts about the place.
“If our guests and visitors find the stories interesting and inspiring, they will stay longer, contribute to the local economy more and see the Philippines differently,” said Teo, in a report.
The DOT chief said that she has also given instructions to the regional offices of the DOT to devote funding for the continuous training of tour guides all over the country.
The DOT has earmarked a total budget of P1.2 million for its three-pronged training program for tour guides, which covers the regional tour-guiding course, continuing education, and community guiding seminar.
Tourism Undersecretary for regulation, coordination and resource generation Alma Jimenez, during her recent visit to Cebu, said the agency is also working on the reintegration of returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to become tour guides, especially for non-English speaking tourists visiting the country, in partnership with the Department of Labor and Employment.
Last year, Jimenez said the agency implemented 150 training programs that benefited close to 7,000 people in the tourism industry.
The Philippines is expecting to welcome at least 12 million foreign tourists by 2022 and spur domestic tourism by 89.2 million tourists.
By end of the Duterte administration, the DOT also expects to generate 6.5 million jobs in tourism alone. (KOC)