PRESS RELEASE
Philippine Information Agency-Bohol Information Center
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PIA conducts communication skills
Training to Bohol eco tour guides
TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, February 14, (PIA) – The Philippine Information Agency in Bohol recently extended its training services to aspiring community tour guides preparing for the launching of the eco-tourism Bohol program which international partners are opening soon.
PIA Bohol shared Communication Skills and Effective Interaction to community tour guides of the 15 sites which Bohol Tourism Office of the Office of the Governor and Provincial Tourism Council are readying for Visit Bohol 2015.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) helped Bohol firm up Visit Bohol 2015, and launched it in Manila last January.
On the other hand, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), in its Sustainable Environment for Panglao Project, pushed for support to eco-tourism, explains JICA’s Go Kimura.
JICA is helping communities with eco-tourism potentials to upgrade their sites through infrastructure in access roads, tourism support through rubber boots for tourists, signages, welcome banners, landmark markers, guide plates and information technology assistance that allows tourists to use a quick response(QR) information code scanner on their smartphones.
A QR code is a type of 2D bar code that is often used to provide access to information through a mobile phone.
And while information of the sites can be scanned by smartphone wielding tourists, a local tour guide in these eco-tourism sites would allow tourists to get a better feel of the sites and culture of the people through personal interaction.
“It may not be just ease in the use of the language, but in the ability to thread a good storyline that tells stories interestingly,” the PIA told over 30 tour guides during the training held at the mansion.
With language barriers expected when foreign tourists get to communities, PIA hinted the “use of verbal as well as non-verbal communication, while listening and adapting to the situation as the more appropriate means to get through the information.”
JICA and BTO has asked PIA Bohol to handle communication skills trainings for guides, even as BTO officer Josephine Cabarrus urged the guides to be serious with the training to be properly equipped. (RAC/PIABohol)
