Iloilo City Tourism Officer Junel Ann Divinagracia says they will roll out 'Joyride Ta', a tourism awareness program to deepen the understanding of frontliners about Iloilo City and what it has to offer to visitors on December 17, 2018. (Photo by Lena Perla)
ILOILO CITY -- The City Tourism Office (CTO) of the city government here will roll out on December 17 its tourism awareness program to deepen the understanding of frontliners about Iloilo City and what it has to offer to visitors.
“We want to give our guests easy access to the city but before that we want to prepare our frontliners such that they are knowledgeable, and they know how to respond to basic questions about the city, stories behind destinations and developments,” said Junel Ann Divinagracia in an interview on Tuesday.
Dubbed “Joyride Ta”, at least 200 frontliners of tourism-oriented and related establishments such as hotels and restaurants will take part during its Monday’s free guided tour. The participants are expected to cascade to their colleagues back in their office what they learned during the trip.
“We have prepared an itinerary that will pass by all destinations in the city for them to be briefed about their significance,” she added.
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 cited the need to raise the awareness of frontliners about the city destinations as there has been an upward trend in terms of tourist arrival in Iloilo City. Last year, the city hit the one-million mark, she said.
“It’s on upward trend. Hopefully this year we can surpass the number,” she added.
She said while they are preparing the frontliners, they are also prepping up the establishments and destinations.
They have 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, she said.
“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 wanted to improve our customer service here in the city,” she added.
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.
The tourism awareness program is held in partnership with the Department of Tourism in Western Visayas. (PNA)
