MANILA, Philippines — Eighty job applicants were hired on the spot during the kickoff of the first-ever tourism job fair hosted by the Department of Tourism (DOT) and by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
The 80 applicants were among the 5,174 job seekers who participated on the first day of the “Trabaho, Turismo, Asenso! Philippine Tourism Job Fair” on September 22.
The job fair — which offers 8,295 work opportunities — also received around 1,000 walk-in applicants as of 3 p.m. Thursday.
“Today, we provide you with opportunities to continue to be our partners as we recover from all the challenges that we have faced,” Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco said in a pre-recorded message.
“Everything that we are doing in the Department of Tourism is to serve the goal of ensuring that we put our tourism stakeholders front and center of our agenda,” she added.
Frasco also emphasized that tourism workers and stakeholders are “the best representation of the Filipino brand” of hospitality.
For her part, DOLE Undersecretary for Employment and Human Resource Development Cluster Carmela Torres said: “We hope that the Philippine Tourism Job Fair was able to guide you (job seekers) to appropriate employment goal.”
The Manila portion of the job fair which is being held at the SMX Convention Center, will run until September 24.
Meanwhile, the Cebu and Davao legs, which are held at SM City Cebu and Abreeza Mall Davao, respectively, will run until September 23. —Catherine Dabu, INQUIRER.net trainee
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