Tourism advocates form Team Philippines

To further strengthen the country’s objective of becoming a preferred world-class tourism destination, industry stakeholders took the initiative of forming Team Philippines.

Team Philippines, which stands for Tourism Educators and Movers, lives up to the advocacy of moving towards developing the skills of stakeholders in the industry through training programs for tourism students and capacity building for its mentors.

Team Philippines founder Robert Lim Joseph said that the group sees the relevance of forming a team with the realization that fresh tourism graduates nowadays lack the proper skills training to match what the industry needs.

The team is composed of representatives from the Department of Tourism, Deans and Professors of member schools and universities and some representatives from the private sector.

“The group is a private sector-led initiative aimed to shepherd students and educators to enhance and improve their skills to be globally competitive in today’s challenging tourism market,” he stressed.

He said that their group aims to provide adequate funding for the trainings to develop the skills of tourism students most especially in communication and character building.

He said that other than the lack of fluency in the English language, most tourism students in the country also lack training on social graces and protocol which are very essential skills needed especially when entertaining important tourists such as royalties.

“We have realized that our tourism students lack the proper skills needed to be accepted in the industry and their attitude, values and inculcated culture also needs to be improved,” said Joseph.

As of the moment, Joseph and other members of Team Philippines are doing “follow-ups and follow through” to generate ample funding to get accredited trainers as well as send students and educators on tours, seminars and trainings abroad.

The funding will be raised from donations of private sector companies involved in tourism-related services and products who also share their vision, said Joseph.

“We have limited funding so we are hoping that other organizations will also support our cause because all we want is to initiate and provoke change in the industry,” he said.

With proper funding, Team Philippines is looking at setting up seminars and conventions that will also enhance the skills of students on operating, managing, marketing and administering conventions as well as generate more fund.

They are also looking at producing manuals and training materials that could be distributed to academic institutions such as DVD training kits to be distributed in different schools.

Team Philippines was formed last year and will soon become an incorporated organization.

Currently, the team is also talking with general managers of hotels and resorts in the country to get more stakeholders to join in their advocacy.

He said that other thrust of the organization is to coordinate for the upcoming International Tourism Fair.

Joseph is also the president of the League of Tourism Students of the Philippines (LTSP), which recently held its Cebu Chapter Summit.

LTSP is composed of students from 40 academic institutions nationwide who offer tourism-related courses and they are one of the beneficiaries of the efforts and initiatives undergone by Team Philippines. —Rhia de Pablo