A YOUNG and competent Negrense serves as the new director of the Department of Tourism (DOT) Region 6, Western Visayas.
Negrense Cristine Mansinares, the former Tourism head of Negros Occidental, is now a full-fledged Director of the DOT Region 6, Western Visayas, succeeding from her predecessor, the former Director Helen Catalbas who retired from service on April 16, 2021.
Catalbas has triumphantly rendered a 44-year government service.
Her retirement has presented alternatives to Mansinares who then served as the Chief Tourism Operations Officer, to take a bigger leap to land in the top DOT Region VI post.
Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat appointed her to the top post and administered her oath of office recently.
Before her assignment in 2020 in the region line agency, Mansinares was the provincial tourism officer of Negros Occidental, former Tourism head of Sipalay City, a prominent destination for divers, eco-watchers, and beach lovers for its white sand resorts and other natural attractions.
With the Covid-19 pandemic that continued to linger in Philippine communities, the tourism industry is facing greater challenges especially in dealing with the industry's development in the midst of the pandemic.
In her media interviews, Maninares said she will pursue a tourism rehabilitation and recovery plan for DOT Region 6 once the health risk becomes fewer.
She said, major tourism sites in Aklan like Boracay, being the premier tourist destination in Western Visayas including its neighboring destinations, were placed under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) to ease the spread of the virus.
The MECQ has commanded a zero visitor arrival to Aklan since the MECQ was enforced on the first week of August 2021.
They are now focusing on the vaccination of the tourism workers in Boracay to help restore tourists' confidence to travel when the health situation is finally back to normal.
The rehabilitation and recovery of the tourism industry are the major challenges she has to deal with, together with key industry stakeholders, in light of the Covid-19 crisis.
"The pandemic calls us to be resilient and innovative as we slowly reopen the tourism sector in the region," Mansinares, who hails from Sagay City said.
Her work experiences revolved in a cross-cultural environment that helped her widen her perspectives on how tourism significantly impacts human and economic development.
Once the pandemic slows down, she aims to enlist the development of Slow Food Travel in Western Visayas to push for a sustainable tourism model by developing connections among small scale farmers, cooperatives, and businesses while raising awareness among visitors about the importance of preserving biodiversity, championing farm and organic agriculture tourism, cultural heritage promotion, and local gastronomy, among others.
She vowed to continue Catalbas' tourism programs which centered on growing the local tourism economy and finding new opportunities to restart tourism through the "Safely Experience Western Visayas First" campaign.
Just like her predecessor, Mansinares was also an academic achiever.
She received her bachelor’s degree in tourism from Colegio San Agustin-Bacolod where she graduated magna cum laude and class valedictorian in 2005.
Mansinares completed her Masters in Business Administration degree from the University of San Agustin-Iloilo in 2008 and the same year, finished a short course on Tourism Promotion and Marketing at the Tokyo International Center under the Japan International Cooperation Agency grant.
In 2015, she completed her Bachelor of Laws from the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos in Bacolod City.