The Negros Occidental Tourism Division conducted a Tourism Statistics Mentoring participated by 30 officers and statistics personnel from seventeen 17 local government units at the Negros Residences in Bacolod City Thursday, March 4.
The mentoring activity, spearheaded by Dr. Jennylind Cordero, OIC Provincial Tourism Officer, was held to provide the participants with basic knowledge on statistics data gathering and encoding of tourist arrival data.
This is in compliance with the use of a unified database for data collection provided by the Department of Tourism, Cordero said.
The technical assistance on tourism statistics is mandated under Republic Act 9593, which requires the LGUs to monitor tourist arrivals from DOT Accredited and non-DOT Accredited Accommodation Facilities, and Tourism Attractions, she added.
Statistics data from tourism arrivals is essential in helping the local government units and industry stakeholders determine future tourism trends, local development plans and programs in infrastructure and human resource, Cordero said.
Fundamentals of Tourism, and the Western Visayas Tourism Situationer were also among the topics presented during the orientation.
In the upcoming months, more capacity building trainings will be conducted in partnership with the Department of Tourism Region VI such as Ecotourism/Sustainable Tourism, Training for Community-based Tourism Organizations, Crisis Management in Tourism, Heritage Tourism Development, Digital Marketing, Planning Setting-up and Managing in Farm Tourism Destination, Basic Tourism Statistics Training, and Tourism Safety and Security Seminar, Cordero said.*