New tourism chief, foes of old one meet

New Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez on Friday bumped into officers of the Tourism Congress at a Pasay City mall and vowed to consult the government-created body to better achieve the country’s tourism goals.

“We need to sit down soon and sort things out so we can all move forward together,” Jimenez told the congress officials led by president Alma Jimenez and vice presidents Jaime Cura, Jenny Franco and Susan Palad.

The unscheduled meeting took place on the sidelines of the Philippine Travel Mart exhibit put up by the Philippine Tour Operations Association at the SMX Convention Center at the Mall of Asia.

The previous tourism secretary, Alberto Lim, had a difficult relationship with the Tourism Congress, whose officials accused him of ignoring them and trying to reorganize the group illegally.

Lim, for his part, had said the congress was not really made up of tourism stakeholders in the country.

The Tourism Congress is a private consultative body set up under Republic Act No. 9593, or the Tourism Act of 1999, to assist the government in developing, coordinating and implementing tourism policy.

Posing for photographs with congress officials, Jimenez thanked them for their “warm congratulations” on his appointment.

He expressed his desire to meet with them as soon as his schedule would allow.

The congress officials, in turn, complimented the secretary on his insights on tourism development, as reported in the media. Jerome Aning