MANILA - The Department of Tourism will be adding more "Tourist Rest Areas" in different destinations to provide comfort and convenience to visitors and guests.
Tourist Rest Areas, one of the flagship programs of Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco, will each have a coffee shop, pasalubong center, tourism information area, comfort rooms and charging stations.
“It has a unified design that aims to present Filipino elements in the design to provide the most basic necessity for any tourism activity or travel, with decent restrooms. We ensure na laging may toilet paper,” Frasco said at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay Forum on Wednesday.
“We also wish to provide our small and medium enterprises, our local vendors, our pasalubong makers the opportunities to sell their goods,” she added.
DOT has earlier managed to break ground for 10 tourist rest areas in Pagudpud in Ilocos Norte, Baguio City, Cebu, Palawan, Bohol, Samal Island in Davao Del Norte and in Bukidnon.
This year, they intend to add more since some local government units and two “huge corporations” have expressed interest to partner with the DOT to build the project.
“Mayroon tayo criteria for the maintenance that we are giving to the LGUS and if they are able to comply with these criteria, with at least 90% compliance, by the end of the year then we give them financial incentives,” Frasco noted.
PHILIPPINE TRAVEL INCENTIVE PROGRAM:
The DOT is also intensifying its campaign to promote its travel incentive program, “Bisita, Be My Guest” which gives Filipinos, who invite foreign tourists to the country, a chance to win special prizes.
“You can register as a sponsor and invite a foreigner to come to our country, to any of our selected 12 destinations, then you will have an opportunity to win raffle prizes, that include house and lot, condominiums, free airline tickets, free shopping spree and free holiday packages,” Frasco said.
Frasco stressed that any Filipino can be a good tourism ambassador, just like American actress Vanessa Hudgens’ promotion of the Philippines to the world.
“We are grateful for Ms. Hudgens’s help in terms of telling the story of the Philippines to the world and we see that her visit to Palawan, which she generously shared with her 50 million followers, all over the world, definitely brought the positive attention to the country,” Frasco said.
“But whether it is Vanessa Hudgens, our fellow Filipinos all over the world, all us, have the opportunity to become tourism ambassadors for our country, by telling the positive story about the Filipino and heralding the good news about the Philippines,” she said.
Hudgens, when she visited the Philippines in April, had been conferred with “global tourism ambassador” title by Pres. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
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