Job generation crucial to tourism growth

MANILA, Philippines - Generating more employment opportunities in the tourism industry is crucial in driving the growth of the local tourism sector, the Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP) said over the weekend.

TCP executive vice president Aileen Clemente said there is a need to increase the number of tourism players down to the community level in order to sustain the industry’s growth and achieve its targets.

“At present, only one in nine employed Filipinos are working in the tourism industry. That is a very low number considering that the industry is very much human intensive. Tourism is all about person-to-person interaction,” Clemente said.

“If we want tourist arrivals in the country to breach the 10 million mark and domestic tourism at 60 million over the next five years, there has to be ample opportunities for employment within the industry.  This is just as important as developing the infrastructure in the country’s tourism destinations,” she added.

In a bid to contribute to the employment generation in the sector, the TCP said it has partnered with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to look into how tourism-related skills can be further integrated in their programs.

“Colleges and universities need to have most of their programs include tourism related subjects. TESDA also needs to expand their presence and provide skills training to all barangays across the country,” Clemente said.

She said the industry group would launch this year an annual job fair in several key cities across the country. This program seeks to match potential employees with companies in the tourism industry.

“You do not need to have a masters degree to be part of the tourism industry.  Tourism can employ persons coming from diverse educational backgrounds.  But at the same they will need to be properly trained to succeed in the industry,” she said.

“We will be matching at least 50 tourism companies each from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao with potential new hires through the jobs fair.  Individuals will be submitting their resumes online to the TCP and those who are qualified will be sent invitations,” she said.

Though the TCP cannot guarantee everyone who applied would find employment during the job fairs, Clemente assured the group would create a database from all the applications they would receive.

This database can be accessed by tourism companies in the future should they have more employment needs.