The Department of Tourism is preparing an event that will unveil tourism career opportunities in the Philippines.
The First NorthPhil Tourism Forum and Career Fair is being organized by the DOT office in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Baguio City on Oct. 16 to 18.
“The fair will highlight the rise of our region as MICE [meetings, incentive travel, conventions and exhibitions] ‘CAReer’ hub for tourism,” said DOT-CAR regional director and project proponent Marie Venus Tan.
“Such opportunities are open to all graduating students who are looking for a career in the tourism industry,” Tan said.
The three-day event includes lectures and fora on topics related to tourism career opportunities and practices as it brings the academe to the realities of the industry’s needs.
The speakers, who are the icons of practically all the tourism sectors, will present their personal and professional experiences in their respective career paths and provide tips on how to spot and seize opportunities for industry growth and advancement, thus resulting in jobs and livelihood generation.
“As industry leaders, they will talk about the realities in their respective sectors such as the culinary and restaurants, hotels and resorts, MICE, cruise, airlines and aviation and travel and tours, among others,” Tan said.
Also to be featured are the new breeds of tourism entrepreneurs who do business online using various mobile applications and other enabling digital mechanisms, including the income potentials that these can generate.
“And to fully equip and empower the graduates, they will be given a free seminar on basic productivity and quality concepts; communicating service quality; understanding, satisfying and managing customer expectations; and the art of effective listening and communication,” Tan said.
Trainers from the Department of Labor and Employment will also teach future employees on how to conduct themselves during employment interviews, while at the workplace, when subjected to sexual harassment, and how to deal with the reality of HIV in the community, among others.
The Technical Educations and Skills Development Authority will present its training programs, courses, and assistance to graduates in searching and qualifying for jobs. Another interesting session is about proper grooming where experts provide the formula in picking the right clothes, hairstyle and makeup for various occasions and situations.
The session includes discussion on the effective verbal and non-verbal communications during interviews and other forms of human interactions.
A special matching session at the career exhibition will also help jobseekers find employment that aptly suits their education, skills, personality and interests.
The 1st NorthPhil Tourism Forum and Career Fair will be held at the Camp John Hay Trade and Cultural Center as a human capital development project of the DOT’s CAR regional office in its pursuit of the National Tourism Development Plan 2016-2022.
The event is being organized and managed by the Philippine Exhibits and Themeparks Corp.
“The growth of tourism, being a largely service-oriented industry, depends on competent and tourism-capable human resources who can make a community or region tourism worthy, thus our focus on the academe as the matrix of our developmental efforts,” Tan said.
