ILOILO City – To deepen the understanding of local tourism industry frontliners about Iloilo City and what it has to offer to visitors, the City Tourism Office (CTO) will roll out on Dec. 17 its tourism awareness program dubbed “Joyride Ta.”
“We want to give our guests easy access to the city. But before that we want to prepare our frontliners. They have to be knowledgeable. They must know how to respond to basic questions about the city, stories behind destinations and developments,” said Junel Ann Divinagracia, city tourism officer.
At least 200 frontliners of tourism-oriented and related establishments such as hotels and restaurants will take part in a free guided tour on Monday.
The participants are expected to cascade to their colleagues back in their offices what they learned during the trip.
“We have prepared an itinerary. It includes all destinations in the city. The participants would be briefed about their significance,” said Divinagracia.
The series of free guided tours will include barangay officials because sometimes tourists also ask information from them.
Vendors and frontliners of national government agencies, among others, will also be included.
Divinagracia stressed the need to raise the awareness of frontliners about the city’s destinations, citing the upward trend in tourist arrivals.
Last year, the city hit the one-million mark, she said.
“Hopefully this year we can surpass the number,” said Divinagracia.
The CTO would also be prepping up tourism-oriented establishments. It has been coordinating with the Iloilo Hotels, Resorts and Restaurants Association, Iloilo Business Club and the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
To date, the city has almost 2,000 tourism establishments, said Divinagracia.
“It is part of giving back to our tourism stakeholders because they are paying for tourism license. We will try to train and educate their staff, especially frontliners because we want to improve our customer service,” said Divinagracia.
Likewise, the CTO is planning to acquire a vehicle similar to the tourism jeepney of Guimaras where passengers are seated facing the driver rather than the common jeepneys here where passengers are facing each other. (PNA)
