DOT starts GREET roadshow in Leyte

TACLOBAN CITY – Officials of the Department of Tourism (DOT) are coming to this city to kick off a roadshow on how the youth can engage in business and obtain financial grants under the Grassroots Entrepreneurship for Eco-Tourism (GREET) program.

GREET, according to Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano, provides P50,000 to P100,000 worth of grants to deserving groups or individuals with feasible business proposals for the country’s ecotourism sites.

"A mass-based pioneering project of President Arroyo, GREET’s financial grants are for business concepts that provide not only livelihood opportunities to young entrepreneurs, but also the protection, promotion and preservation of the country’s ecotourism sites and cultural heritage," Durano said.

Durano cited as examples the whale watching business in Donsol, Sorsogon and the banca tours around Boracay Island, which led to the protection and preservation of the seawaters in these areas.

"But there are many more Donsols, Boracays, Siargaos and El Nidos in the Philippines. And in these places, a simple beach umbrella, a banca, and a hut can be good enough to start an ecotourism business. That’s our competitive advantage. Other countries may have infrastructure muscle, but good and rich as they are, they cannot craft synthetic sunset or artificial marble sand," Durano quoted President Arroyo as saying.

Eligible for GREET’s financial grants are small businesses in key ecotourism sites, creatively using indigenous materials and employing local talents.

How young local entrepreneurs can join the GREET program will be explained during the roadshow slated at the conference hall of the Leyte Small and Medium Enterprises Development Center in this city from 8 a.m. to 12 noon Friday.

More information on GREET can be obtained from the DOT Region 8 Office (053-3212048, 053-3253900) located at the ground floor of Foundation Plaza building at the Leyte Park Resort compound, Magsaysay Boulevard, Tacloban City, or log on to www.wowpinoy.net/greet where applicants can download application forms.

Invited to attend the GREET roadshow are various groups being assisted by the departments of environment and natural resources, social welfare and development, trade and industry, agrarian reform, and agriculture, the beneficiaries of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and Cooperative Development Authority, and members of tourism councils, youth and non-government organizations, academe, local officials and media, and the Tacloban City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, among others.

The roadshow will be conducted by DOT Region 8 director Karina Rosa Tiopes as project manager and by the Philippine Convention and Visitors Corp. (PCVC) as project director. PCVC is the DOT’s marketing arm.

PCVC executive director Daniel Corpuz said the roadshow will cover the provinces of Leyte, Southern Leyte, Biliran, Western Samar, Eastern Samar and Northern Samar, and the cities of Tacloban, Ormoc, Calbayog, Maasin, Baybay, Borongan, and Catbalogan.