TCP preps tourism stakeholders for ASEAN integration

To prepare and raise the awareness of stakeholders for the upcoming regional integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2015, the Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP) is holding a series of consultative workshops taking into consideration how a single market would impact small and medium enterprises.

 

In an e-mailed statement, TCP president Rosanna Tuason-Fores said the key objectives of the consultative meetings are to increase the awareness level of the implications of the economic integration to tourism enterprises and to identify market access opportunities for business in the Philippines and other ASEAN economies.

 

"“The ASEAN integration will have more impact to smaller and medium enterprises not only in terms of competitiveness but also in terms of manpower," she said.

 

"This is just some of the issues we will look into in these series of consultative meetings. We need to mitigate any adverse effects brought about by the integration,” Tuason-Fores said.

 

ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, will establish a single market economy by 2015 to attract more investments and facilitate intra-ASEAN trade and investments.

 

Through the consultative meetings, Tuason-Fores said the Departments of Tourism and of Trade and Industry will be able to get inputs for the roadmap of Philippine Tourism in AEC 2015 and Beyond, an activity supported by the USAID Advancing Philippine Competitiveness or COMPETE Project.

 

The TCP is a national organization of tourism enterprises created by virtue of the Tourism Act of 2009.

 

The consultative meetings, dubbed as “Tourism Integration Briefing and Consultative Meeting,” will run from July 21 to 22 in Marco Polo Hotel in Lahug, Cebu.

 

The next consultative meetings will be held on July 23-24 at the Waterfront Hotel in Davao City, on August 12-13 in Clark, Pampanga and will culminate in Manila also sometime in September. Danessa O. Rivera/VS, GMA News