By Rhia de Pablo Updated March 14, 2009 12:00 AM
CEBU, Philippines - Amidst massive lay-offs experienced by the labor force due to the impact of the global economic recession, the country’s tourism industry continues to bring in more fresh jobs to the economy.
Department of Tourism (DOT) secretary Joseph “Ace” Durano stressed, during the opening of the 4th Trabaho sa Turismo fair at the SM City Cebu yesterday, that the expansion of the country’s tourism industry continues to boost the employment level of Filipinos even amidst the negative clout of the global economic recession.
Durano said that for this year’s expo, they offer 8, 598 job vacancies which are regular and permanent positions coming from tourism and tourism-related industries.
He said that 80 percent of these jobs are from Philippine-based companies while only 20 percent came from foreign demand and 90 percent of local jobs are from the province’s tourism industry.
“The Philippines have more job availability now compared to job placements from abroad. The tourism sector will really continue to expand and along with this is the generation of more jobs that will help the economy in these tough times,” said Durano.
He said that right now, there are about four million workers that are directly employed by the country’s tourism industry and this number shows that the industry remains to be a job generator while other sectors are laying-off their workers.
“Even if the industry cannot really absorb the huge number of retrenched workers from the other sectors, still the expansion of the country’s tourism industry continues to provide employment to Filipinos. Tourism provides varied jobs to various level of skills may it be to professionals, undergrads and new graduates,” said Durano.
The Trabaho sa Turismo Expo is the only tourism-focused jobs fair in the country and it involves DOT accredited local and foreign-based employers such as airlines, shipping and cruise companies, hotels, resorts, restaurants, travel agencies, tour operators, convention and exhibition centers, spa and wellness establishments, recruitment firms, golf clubs, malls and department stores, call centers and business process outsourcing firms, banks, schools, government agencies and entertainment outfits and among others.
This year, Trabaho sa Turismo was participated by 131 companies and so far for the first day of the fair, it has already registered around 2, 935 applicants and registrants.
In an interview with 35 years old Ruel Cola from Danao City who was a hired during the 3rd Trabaho sa Turismo Fair last year, he attested the importance of the activity in providing well-paying job opportunities to people like him.
Cola was hired by Plantation Bay Resort and Spa as a laundry runner last year and after a year of service he is now a regular butler at the resort.
“Dako gyud tabang sa Trabaho sa Turismo fair sa mga aplikante. Ang turismo dako pud nakatabang sa paglambo sa mga parehas nako nga trabahante. Dako pud deperensya akong sweldo madawat karon sa akong trabaho sa una isip driver sa rescue unit (Trabaho sa Turismo fair greatly helps applicants. Tourism also helps augment the living condition of workers like myself. There is a huge discrepancy in how much I earn now to how much I was getting before as a driver of a rescue unit),” Cola shared.
Taking from Cola’s positive experience last year, new applicant Judith Ranara from Camiguin is hopeful to snag an office job from this year’s Trabaho sa Turismo Expo considering the 8, 598 job vacancies available in the job fair.
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