By Connie B. Destura
LEGAZPI CITY, (PNA) -– The Department of Tourism (DOT) Bicol regional office will gather all tourism industry stakeholders for the Regional Tourism Summit 2013 on Sept. 26-27 at the Oriental Hotel here.
With the theme, “Bridging Boundaries and Building Connections,” the tourism summit aims to provide a venue for key players and practitioners, as partners in the tourism industry development, to have a clear understanding of Republic Act 9593, otherwise known as the Tourism Act of 2009, its applicability at the grassroots and the role of the local government units and private tourism stakeholders in its implementation.
“We encourage active participation in this tourism summit which will guide the LGUs in aligning their local tourism development plans with that of the National Tourism Development Plan to ensure proper coordination, integration, prioritization and implementation of the same,” Maria O. Ravanilla, DOT regional director, said.
Ravanilla saw the timeliness and necessity of the tourism summit in the light of recent positive developments that are seen to boost regional tourism.
Just this week, a 30-man delegation of the Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) led by its president, John Paul Cabalza, completed Wednesday a familiarization tour of the Albay’s tourism products and committed to bring hundreds of thousands domestic and foreign tourists to Albay.
The PTAA delegation’s visit was for the 8th Pasyaran 2013, a familiarization tour program of the Albay provincial government that ushers key travel marketing players to local destinations for them to have first-hand experiences of tourism products available and be able to develop appropriate selling strategies.
PTAA is a 500-strong union of the national associations of the outbound travel agencies and inbound tour operators in the Philippine which represents the country’s travel sector in various international and national associations.
The visit was also an offshoot of the recently concluded Philippine Travel Mart at the SMX Convention Center in Mall of Asia wherein the Albay-Masbate-Sorsogon (AlMaSor) Tourism Alliance was presented in a booth that notched the People’s Choice Award for provincial category.
AlMaSor is the clustering of the three southernmost provinces of Bicol that was initiated by the Regional Development Council (RDC) chaired by Albay Governor Joey Sarte Salceda.