BUTUAN CITY—In a bid to meet faltering targets, the Department of Tourism (DOT) in Caraga Region is beefing up its service-related training with added emphasis on first aid and life support services, as most of the tourism areas in the region are those that are island destinations, beach and coastal areas, lakes, waterfalls and riverways.
The focus makes eminent sense, since many a visitor in an island paradise has come to grief with the belated realization that awe-inspiring beaches are not enough for tourist offerings if the host cannot guarantee their safety in case of accidents or medical emergencies.
water safety from personnel of the Department of Tourism (DOT) in Caraga Region.
“We’ve stepped up our training, giving more focus on it since other tourist areas in Caraga Region, not considering Siargao, are still an emerging destination. The training we’ve provided will help prepare local guides and tourism personnel in our tourism destinations so that when we go full blast with our promotions, we are ready by capacitating our tourism front-line workers,” said Ivonnie B. Dumadag, Regional Director, DOT Caraga Regional Office 13.
Dumadag explained that the training will mostly cover seven days, touching different topics of interest tailored to fit the tourism experience offered in the area.
“The tour-guiding training that we are giving will be specific to that area, as each tourist destination that we have differs from one to another, they need to fit the needs of that area,” said Dumadag.
Jessie Mae Tolentino, Tourism Operations Officer 1 of the Training Unit of DOT Caraga Region, explained that the scope of the week-long training covers a broader topic specifically tailored depending on the area.
“The trainings cover different topics; we have community tour guiding, cave guides training, eco-tourism guides, and even river guides. These trainings will enhance our local guides to facilitate better our tourists visiting their areas,” said Tolentino.
Tolentino cited as an example the recent training they had in the town of Del Carmen which offers guests a different tourism experience, such as exploring the town’s vast mangrove forest through their boardwalk tour.
“For example, we will give them the confidence to guide their guests and properly talk about the experience of walking through the mangrove forest using the walk pathway along the area. It is also best if the guide has more information and knowledge as to the topic and area they will talk about,” said Tolentino.
Tolentino explained that aside from giving the participants enough knowledge and skills, the goal is to prepare them for their work as tour guides and to be able to represent their respective destinations.
Basic life support training for tour guides
DUMADAG revealed that a big part of the community tour guiding training is the incorporation of basic life support and first aid.
“We have emphasized teaching our community tour guides the basics on how to rescue as they are the ones guiding their visitors in their area, and before help can arrive, at least they will be able to do something towards helping their guests,” said Dumadag, pointing out that the trainings are essential since most of the attractions across Caraga Region are coastal areas whether it is by sea, river systems, and lakes.
In 2023, according to Dumadag, they focused on training to promote the Filipino Brand of Service Excellence, aimed to enhance the overall tourist experience. “We were able to advocate the use of the Mabuhay gesture as a standard greeting across the region and trail-blazed its institutionalization through policy support from LGUs.”
For 2024, “we are funding more high-impact training under the Tourism Industry Skills Program which offers upskilling and re-skilling to our frontline tourism workers, with FBSE incorporated in the module as well. For certifying training, we have also integrated our accreditation drive, including orientations on how to secure DOT accreditations all the way to navigating the process of application. That way, we don’t just train to capacitate, but also ensure that these enterprises conform to standards by getting themselves accredited.”
For the entire 2023, DOT Caraga has conducted 143 training sessions.
As of July 5, 2024, DOT Caraga has conducted 54 trainings, catering to 2,437 individuals with several more in the pipeline.
Tolentino, for her part, added that an example of fitting the training to their respective areas is the one they had last August in the towns of Del Carmen and Pilar, in Siargao Island where the basic life support was more inclined to water safety.
“The one we did in Del Carmen, part of the weeklong training on the 29 participants was teaching the participants the basics of water survival, saving and rescuing drowning victims,” said Tolentino.
“With our island destinations, we have a separate training on Water Search and Rescue (Wasar), but this has to be in coordination with the local disaster risk reduction and management office because they already have trained personnel in their municipality or their province on the skill set,” said Dumadag.
She added that, “we can’t completely cover all the towns in the region that has a coastal area catering to tourists as much as we want to, since the training cost is very expensive. That’s why we do this with the local government units since they will help counterpart in the cost.”
The DOT regional office is also advocating for boat operators to have their training on Wasar, as it will be essential in ferrying guests and tourists to the different island-hopping sites and destinations.
Image credits: VICTOR DIOLA JR VIA DREAMSTIME.COM, ERWIN M. MASCARIÑAS
