The Richard Gordon-inspired spirit of volunteerism, which proved successful in reviving Subic from the deadly ashes of Mt. Pinatubo, is doing the same to the country’s tourism industry.
This time, however, the volunteers are not the people of Olongapo but thousands of overseas Filipinos, whom Gordon has tapped to support his mission as tourism secretary.
Since October last year, more than 8,000 of them have registered as tourism volunteers, hundreds of whom have already sent thousands of tourists to the country, according to the Philippine Convention and Visitors Corporation (PCVC), an attached agency of the Department of Tourism.
PCVC deputy executive director Rosvi Gaetos said that at an average expenditure of more than $1,000 per tourist, the DoT’s Volunteer-12 Program should have already generated millions of dollars in tourism receipts in barely two quarters.
“The V-12 Program is also saving the government millions of pesos since no major global advertising and promotions are involved,” Gaetos said.
The program, authored by Gordon, calls on every Filipino migrant to promote the Philippines as a prime tourist destination, each with a goal to attract at least one foreign tourist a month, or 12 tourists a year.
“And the foreign arrivals continue to pick up as the V-12 Program expands and accelerates,” Gaetos added.
Just recently, 43 high school students arrived from Japan. They were guests of Marcial Cefre, an OFW in Japan and a tourism volunteer.
Earlier on the same day, Irenia Santiago, a domestic helper in Taipei and also a tourism volunteer, welcomed her employer, Wang Huan, who arrived with five relatives at the airport.
Four days earlier, 71 visitors from Detroit, Chicago planed in as guests of US-based Filipino migrant and tourism volunteer Ariel Sison. His group is the largest single batch recorded under the V-12 program. It broke the previous record of Rev. Samuel Natividad, a Seoul-based pastor and tourism volunteer, who brought in 56 young Koreans last December.
Nonetheless, Natividad later raised that 56 to 108 by bringing in 12 last January and another 40 last February.
“Almost every week, batches of foreign visitors are arriving, courtesy of scores of overseas Filipinos who have volunteered under the V-12 Program and are promoting the Philippines to their foreign friends, bosses, peers and acquaintances,” Gaetos explained.
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