DOT-Eastern Visayas upbeat on new tourism alliance

TACLOBAN CITY, Sept. 12  -- The Department of Tourism (DOT) has voiced optimism on maximizing the tourism potential of Eastern Visayas after service providers formed an organization.

This is the first time that the region’s tour operators, hotel managers, transport providers, tour guides, restaurants, souvenir shop owners and other tourism-related firms formed a group, DOT 8 (Eastern Visayas) Director Karina Rosa Tiopes said in a phone interview Wednesday.

The Eastern Visayas Tourism Association (EVTA) has 62 members who joined the DOT-sponsored organizational meeting at the Oriental Hotel in Palo, Leyte on Monday.

The group seeks to strengthen the working relationships of allied tourism services in the region’s six provinces.

“We have prepared activities for them to get to know each other because we believe that if they know each other, half of the work is done. If they are strange with each other, how can you expect them to forge alliances? We cannot be a single voice in darkness, but a loud voice in the open,” Tiopes told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).

“In unity, there is always strength. That would be a big sin if we will not work together. Region 8 has a growing tourism industry and if at the very start we compete, we will not grow. By working together towards one direction, we will be able to accomplish what we want for Region 8,” she added.

The group picked Pocholo Franco of Francon Viaje International based in Ormoc City as president. He is the current private sector representative for tourism in the Regional Development Council, the region’s highest policy-making body.

Other officers are Ludette Ruiz (Leyte Gulf Travel and Tours), vice-president; Amparo Tan (Bayview Inn Ormoc), treasurer; Leigh Castillo Lobrigo (Save the Date Events Production), auditor; and Rhoel Ladera (Havens Transport), information officer.

The group’s board of directors are Lemuel Honor (East Visayan Transport), Anito Lanticse (The Oriental Leyte), Jonathan Montejo (M Grand Royale Resort), Amy Beato (Rawis Resort), Jonas Montejo (Bon Appetit Catbalogan), Jeffrey Espinaso (Canaan Hills BeeCee Farm), and Denny Uy (Samar Pasalubong Center).

With the association, the tourism department expects that stakeholders can discuss together, find solutions to their concerns, and make representations to concerned entities.

The DOT pushed for the organization of managers of tourism-related business after they noticed in a gathering last month that leaders of local tourism businesses did not know one another. (SQM/PNA)