DOT leads clean-up drive for ‘Visit RP 2003’

With the declaration of 2003 as "Visit Philippines Year" by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the Department of Tourism is leading a nationwide clean-up campaign to institutionalize a clean, safe and pleasant environment all over the archipelago.

The campaign, according to Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon, involves sanitizing all public toilets, establishing a zero garbage system and educating residents on waste disposal and management, cleaning and dredging of major rivers and estuaries, removal of unsightly graffiti and other eyesores in public places, and dismantling of obstructions along major access roads and walkways to and from airports and seaports and popular tourist destinations.

This multisectoral, multi-agency clean-up drive starts in Metro Manila and may require a parallel spruce-up campaign involving the lighting up of destination avenues like Roxas Boulevard, standardization of the taxi service system and rehabilitation of Rizal Park and Intramuros, among others, according to the Philippine Convention and Visitors Corp. (PCVC).

Quoting Gordon, PCVC deputy executive director Rosvi Gaetos said the collective mission "is to instill a culture of tourism that will make every community tourist-ready and tourist-friendly."

"This also means making safety and security everybody’s concern," Gaetos said, disclosing the creation of an expanded security task force exclusive to the tourism sector.

The task force, which will beef up the existing Balikbayan and Tourist Protection Team, is composed of at least 1,000 policemen whose mission is to guarantee the safety of all foreign visitors, provide assistance especially on security matters, and attend to complaints and inquiries.

Nonetheless, police officers to be assigned to this unit will undergo training on tourist protection and interaction prior to deployment in tourism areas.

The Visit Philippines 2003 campaign is geared at attracting some three to four million visitors annually beginning next year.

"All these efforts are consistent with Secretary Gordon’s belief that ‘where tourism advances, poverty retreats,’ and with President Arroyo’s vision of ‘a Philippines where tourism works!" Gaetos said.