Leyte upgrades tourism program to hike revenues

TACLOBAN CITY— The provincial government of Leyte is now trying to organize the municipal tourism officers in the whole province to facilitate a more coordinated promotion of tourism in this part of the region.

It recently conducted a municipal tourism assembly held at the Governor’s Hall which was participated in by a number of tourism officers from the different municipalities in the province including some top officials of the province of Leyte who also graced the activity.

Nelieta Baguna, Leyte Tourism and Investment Promotions Center (LTIPC) head, said the activity was conceptualized on the premise that most of the municipal tourism officers in Leyte are still neophytes and some are not really officially designated as tourism officers although they are doing the same function already.

Only a few of them are actually carrying the item of a tourism officer, that’s why we are orienting them about tourism so that they could also be equipped with the needed skills and expertise in implementing good tourism promotional activities, Baguna said.

She said Leyte Gov. Carlos Jericho "Icot" L. Petilla believes that if tourism has to be promoted it has to have enough proper focus from the local people concerned, like the tourism officers in the municipalities.

Gov. Petilla wants to provide interventions to these tourism officers, train them and give them assistance how to go about their job like identifying their local tourism assets, Baguna said.

Baguna said the role of the province in particular is mainly promotion advocacy and some assistance to the municipal tourism officers.

But the development of tourism especially in terms of infrastructure falls on the municipal and city tourism officers already.

Baguna said that Petilla presently is more inclined in promoting first the heritage or architectural sites worth visiting in the province of Leyte of which many people are not yet aware of due to lack of promotion -- especially about the story behind those wonderful structures.

Tourism has started to improve in the Visayas regions, propelling the domestic economies with increasing tourism receipts, especially in the provinces of Cebu, Aklan, Iloilo, and even in the Guimaras Island. "The province of Leyte will soon be catching up with the introduction of innovative tourism projects."

[ Tacloban City Hall Wiki ]