Department of Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco. (Image from liloan.gov.ph)
MANILA, Philippines — Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco has announced the beginning of a “listening tour” to consult with regional tourism offices about ways to repair and support the tourism industry’s recovery.
Frasco said this during her first flag-raising ceremony as the new DOT chief on Monday, underscoring the importance of being “in touch with the realities on the ground.”
“This week, I will be starting my listening tour as the Secretary of the Department of Tourism to see for myself and to hear the challenges faced by our regional offices and tourism stakeholders across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao,” said Frasco.
“The objective being to be at the front and center of the prevailing issues that need to be addressed and to craft solutions that will ensure the full rehabilitation and recovery of the tourism industry,” she added.
According to Frasco, the DOT under her leadership will not only be focused on crafting national policy but also on being “in touch with the realities on the ground, to give attention to sites, peoples, products that have not necessarily been given equal opportunity to be developed, to reach out to all regional offices, all of our partners in the local government units, to extend to them the hand of collaboration from the Department of Tourism, and to send across the message that we are here to help the industry arise and recover.”
This, said Frasco, is in line with President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s vision for the tourism industry “to become one of the major economic pillars for the Philippines” under his administration.
Frasco, who was the former spokesperson of Vice President Sara Duterte and the daughter of Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, was sworn in as tourism head on June 30, as part of Marcos’ administration.
She had also been reelected for another term as mayor of Liloan town in Cebu before she was appointed by the new President to her current post. — Zacarian Sarao