About the Tourism Institute
The growth and development of the tourism
industry is imperative in the context of regional and countryside
development. It generates employment (roughly 2.3 million jobs), trade
and business opportunities. It aslo promotes strong backward and
forward linkages with other industries such as transport, real estate
and property development-- hotels/resorts, gift shops, restaurants,
jewelry, construction among others.
The passage of the Local Government Code
1991 started the decentralization process by devolving the tourism
functions on promotion and planning to the Local Government Units
(LGUs). To date, the Department of Tourism has organized 13 Regional
Tourism Councils (RTCs) composed mostly of private sector
representatives as well as government counterparts from the LGUs and
Regional Tourism Councils. These RTCs are mandated to coordinate all
efforts in the planning and promotion of tourism activities at the
regional level.
Despite these developments, however, the
industry still suffers from the:
-
lack of understanding of what tourism is
all about
-
lack of appreciation of the needs and
requirements of the tourist markets
-
lack of understanding of the devolved
tourism functions as well as funding support
-
inability of the RTCs and LGUs to obtain
and harness community involvement and support in tourism development
-
low level of awareness of economic,
trade and social benefits of tourism to the community
-
lack of an institutional approach in
developing community-driven or "grass roots" tourism
Against this backdrop, the Tourism Institute
was set up for the LGUs, RTCs and the network of tourism personnel
students and volunteers from all over the Philippines. The
institute conducts tourism research and provide education for
people in the tourism industry.
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