GABATO
WHILE he only served in the Department of Tourism in Central Visayas (DOT-7) for a little over three months, the late regional director Catalino “Butch” Chan III set expectations among stakeholders that his successor would have to live up to.
For Cebu Provincial Tourism Officer Joselito “Boboi” Costas, the new regional director should have the grasp of the tourism industry as a whole.
He or she should be competent and willing to hear from, as well as work with, all stakeholders.
“He or she should have the heart for communities and the mind for evidence-based policies. Director Butch was all of these,” Costas told Cebu Daily News in a text message on Monday.
Chan passed away at 62 last March 16 in Cebu City.
The late director, who was assigned to Cebu after having served the DOT in Northern Mindanao for many years, envisioned rosy prospects for tourism in Central Visayas.
Edilberto Mendoza, past president of the Cebu Association of Tour Operations Specialists (CATOS), said Central Visayas needs a dynamic director.
“A thinker and a doer and at the same time can work well with both private and public sectors. His (or her) vision should be holistic in nature,” said Mendoza.
DOT-7 is currently being headed by an officer-in-charge (OIC) until Secretary Corazon Wanda Teo appoints Chan’s replacement.
Judy Gabato, DOT-7 OIC, said she does not intend to deviate from any of the previous director’s plans for the region.
“We don’t want to change anything because he had a really a good vision for Central Visayas,” Gabato told CDN at the sideline of Philippine Airlines’ send-off ceremony for its flights from Cebu to Surigao and General Santos on Sunday.
Gabato said she still had to go through all of Chan’s plans to see what commitments he made.
At the start of his stint in January 2017, Chan was determined to sustain the performance of well-established provinces Cebu and Bohol while placing focus on emerging destinations such as Negros Oriental and Siquijor.
He also planned to push for culinary tourism in each town of every province in the region as well as to showcase the provinces in big expos in Manila.
Although she wanted to continue the late regional director’s plans, it would still be up to the next regional director on whether he or she would continue or plot his or her own vision for the region.
At present, Gabato said she still had no idea who the replacement for the late director would be or when he or she would take over.
She also said that the office cannot be run by an OIC, who is also the chief tour operations officer.
“I don’t want to pre-empt. In respect to him or her, we’ll just wait and see,” said Gabato.
Chan had planned to mount several familiarization tours for regional stakeholders in parts of the country where airlines recently opened direct routes to.
Earlier this year, DOT-7 hosted a tour for travel agents from the region in Clark, Pampanga in the wake of new direct flights from Cebu to that part of Central Luzon.
According to DOT SOCCSKSARGEN (Region 12) Director Nelly Dillera, who has jurisdiction over General Santos, Chan initially spoke to her about a possible partnership between their regions.
Dillera, in an interview during a business matching event for Visayas and Region 12 tourism players in General Santos City, said she intends to pursue the plan even without Chan at the helm of DOT-7.
“All the more that we will push this. We promised each other that we will help one another. I promised him that I will go to Cebu,” she said.
Dillera, whose friendship with Chan goes way back to the latter’s stint as director of the Northern Mindanao tourism office, said she planned to send a bigger delegate to the Cebu International Travel Expo in June this year.
She said they could even go beyond that and conduct business-to-business events with players from Cebu.