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TOURISM
stakeholders said the industry should not stop their
employees from leaving for lucrative jobs abroad, and
should focus instead on training more qualified people
while keeping talent as long as possible.
This was
the sentiment of government officials, as well as
airline and resort companies, at the start of the Cebu
Tourism Congress on Wednesday at the Cebu International
Convention Center in Mandaue City.
Emmanuel
Gonzalez, president of Plantation Bay Resort and Spa,
said companies should take continuous recruitment and
training as a regular and huge operating expense.
“You
can’t keep them. We just wish them well, and hope we
have trained them well so they could compete abroad,”
Gonzalez told some 500 participants of the two-day
congress.
“If you
are too lazy to become a nurse or a doctor and you want
to go abroad, then the tourism industry is the way to do
it.”
It is
not only hotel-service personnel and officers who are
being fished by better-paying jobs abroad. Pilots,
ground personnel, mechanics and cabin crew of airlines
are also flying out of the country in huge numbers.
Felix
Cruz, vice president for marketing support of flag
carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL), said talent loss is
aggravating the worsening situation of the travel
industry, already plagued by huge fuel costs, stiff
competition and “uncontrollable” sociopolitical events.
“We know
Filipinos are deeply talented and they are being sought
after abroad,” he said.
But
there is still a silver lining for the industry as there
are still a huge number of tourism graduates who can
fill up the slack.
Robert
Lim Joseph Jr., president emeritus of the National
Association of Travel Agencies (Naitas), said only 7
percent of the estimated 11,000 tourism graduates last
school year was absorbed by the industry.
“We have
to develop new talents, improve their attitudes, then
develop their skills,” Joseph said.
Tourism
Department director for Central Visayas Patria Aurora
Roa said allowing Filipinos to work abroad and gain
experience will also benefit the local tourism industry
and give it a global perspective.
“We
should allow them to work abroad because soon they will
come back and work here and give our industry a global
perspective,” she said.
But
while the exodus of personnel abroad seemingly has not
ended, Plantation Bay and Philippine Airlines insist
that looking for the best talent, training them and
keeping them remain a priority for them.
Gonzalez
said Plantation Bay has adopted a policy of “fitting
square pegs in round holes”—looking for sparks in their
existing manpower and provide them chance to man higher
posts.
He
boasts that their pastry chef has started with the
resort as a janitor, their spa director as a back-office
secretary and their general manager, Efren Belarmino, as
a housekeeping personnel. |
