Roa stays with DOT until April

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Tourism (DOT) extended the service of Central Visayas regional director Patria Aurora “Dawnie” Roa up to April this year, this would be the second extension granted to Roa.

Roa, who has been serving as DOT-7 regional director in Central Visayas for 17 years, supposedly retired October of last year, but she was given an extension until this month.

“I got a memo extending my service up to April this year. This came as a surprise to me, after all the ‘goodbye’ parties hosted by the tourism stakeholders in Cebu,” Roa said in an interview with The Freeman yesterday.

According to Roa, with the four months left of heading the regional office here, she has to work double time on implementing programs that will further boost the tourism sector in Cebu.

She said she will work on the hosting of Cebu to the Meetings, Incentive, Conference and Exhibition (MICE) Asian Congress next year, together with the active stakeholders in Cebu.

Also, with the implementation of the new tourism law, there are a lot works to be done, especially in accrediting hotel establishments mostly on Islands to be DOT accredited and invest on improving their facilities to conform to the international standard.

Roa is supposed to turn over her post to Rica Bueno this month, but with the extension given, she said she will slowly turn over to Bueno the job and let her familiarize the region’s tourism sector.

Significantly, she said that before leaving her post as DOT-7 director, she will work on boosting Cebu’s name as “Top Island Destination” in the Asia Pacific region.

“I am happy that I got the extension, so that I could still finish and continue the programs that are currently in the pipeline,” she said.

The new tourism law will create a revamp in the entire tourism sector, although its aim is to improve the state of tourism industry in the country.

Roa vows to work hard in helping stakeholders, private institutions to embrace and comply with the law immediately, in order for Cebu to take the lead in the tourism growth of the country.

The Tourism Act of 2009 seeks to regulate and uplift the standard of tourism services; to strengthen promotional capability of our tourism industry; to create infrastructure such as hotel development and beaches; to encourage private sector participation; to ensure and focus a cooperative approach among various agencies and institutions; and to ensure competitiveness and increase market share.

The new law “declares a national policy for tourism as an engine of investment, employment, growth and national development, and strengthens the DOT and its attached agencies to effectively and efficiently implement that policy.”