By Erwin Nicavera/Philippine News Agency
BACOLOD CITY — A total of 25 tour guides in Negros Occidental will soon be accredited by the Department of Tourism (DOT) after completing their training recently.
The tour guides received their certificates during the Regional Tour Guiding Training Graduation 2019 held on June 8 in this city.
Cristine Mansinares, provincial supervising tourism operations officer, said in a statement on Monday that it is vital for this batch of tour guides to practice what they have learned, including the knowledge and technical skills.
Mansinares said trained guides have to continue reading more about the province, region, and country, and should organize themselves so they can be easily tapped.
“Tour guiding is very dynamic as every now and then, the figures are changing. There are updates on information as well as on various issues that might be shared,” she noted.
Aside from the newly-trained 25, there are only seven DOT-accredited tour guides in Negros Occidental. The accreditation for the new ones is already being processed and up for approval within the year.
Mansinares said the DOT cannot entertain complaints from tour operators and other enterprises hiring the services of tour guides not certified by the agency.
“Now that we have a pool of tour guides that can be utilized, we can already encourage tour enterprises to get their services,” she added.
For her part, DOT-Western Visayas Regional Director Helen Catalbas urged the 25 new graduates of tour guiding in Negros Occidental to promote the province, region, and the country well.
“Count yourselves as among those who will really promote Negros Occidental, Western Visayas, and the Philippines,” she added.
Catalbas underscored the need to strengthen the presence of accredited tour guides to address the problem of “colorum” or unlicensed tour guiding services.
“The quality of services cannot be assured, including the information shared, if the industry is dominated by non-accredited tour guides,” she added.
The training course on tour guiding was initiated by the Negros Occidental Tourism Division, DOT-Western Visayas and Tourism Educators and Movers Philippines-Western Visayas.
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