Tour guiding training set for tourism frontliners

CEBU, Philippines - To provide good livelihood opportunity for countryside folks and maximize the wealth of tourism, Global Power Skills Development Center Inc., will roll out a series of off-site training campaigns for tour guiding, specifically for “habal-habal” drivers and boatmen.

 Global Power Skills president Glenn Soco said the “habal-habal” drivers and boatmen are usually the primary frontliners of tourism industry, especially in the countryside destinations. These people, he said, should be given proper training in tour guiding so that they can also have extra income while bringing tourists to their destinations.

Global Power Skills Development Center, Inc. offers courses that enhance accessory skills particularly related to hospitality and tourism sectors. The center has ongoing training on bar tending, housekeeping, food and beverage, barista, commercial cooking, and baking.

In the next few months, the company will launch its “off-site” training campaign, providing professional tour guiding training to tourism destinations in the countryside, targeting tourism frontliners such as habal-habal or tricycle drivers, and boatmen.

Soco said these “habal-habal” or tricycle drivers in far-flung towns are the informal tour guides for tourists especially the adventure tourism enthusiasts. 

Now that adventure tourism has emerged as one of the “hottest” products for tourism sector in the Philippines, more so in Cebu and neighboring provinces, there is a need for these marginal sector to be given formal training, as well as make tour guiding as their alternative source of income. 

Although most tourists who come to remote destinations for adventure activities like birdwatching, trekking, kayaking and nature tripping, have their own tour guides, Soco said most tourists prefer to get a local guide to feel the “local touch” of the destination. 

   The Philippines, especially Cebu is strengthening its niche to attract the 58 million birdwatchers from the United Kingdom and the United States, emphasizing the rich number of unique bird species in the “Pearl of the Orient.”

Cebu, for instance, is capitalizing on the Flowerpecker, hailed as the world’s top three rarest bird, and found only in the forests of Tabunan and Alcoy.

Birdwatching activity is just one of dozens of adventure tourism activities that Cebu can offer to the growing number of adventure tourists in the world.

 Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano earlier mentioned that aside from birdwatching and island hopping, another emerging adventure tourism activity for Cebu and neighboring provinces is “kayaking.”