CLARK FREEPORT, PAMPANGA – Hoteliers in Clark, Angeles City, City of San Fernando, Pampanga, Tarlac, and Subic, Zambales have rallied behind Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat to extend the best in Filipino hospitality and ensure that the needs of the visiting athletes are met throughout their stay.
In response to Sec. Puyat’s call for the tourism sector to rise to the occasion, some 51 representatives of Clark and Subic hotels operators showed up at the meeting hosted by the Clark Development Corporation (CDC) and DOT. The attendees include 19 hotels from the Subic Cluster, 16 hotels from the Clark Cluster, Department of Tourism Region III Director Carolina D. Uy, Ms. Jem Camba, Tourism Department Manager of Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), Ms. Noemi Julian, Tourism Department Manager of CDC, a representative from the City Tourism Office of the City of San Fernando, Pampanga, and some staff from the host offices.
Secretary Puyat is elated after being assured that close coordination and effective communication among tourism players are already are in place in these sporting hubs. This developed after Undersecretary Arturo P. Boncato, Jr. of the Tourism Regulation, Coordination and Resource Generation (TRCRG) conveyed the Secretary’s directive to extend best practices in Filipino hospitality and anticipate guests’ needs.
“Through team work and determination to showcase Filipino hospitality at its best, we stand to win the whole thing altogether” Sec. Puyat said.
As requested by the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (PHISGOC), the hotel operators readily agreed to double up help in monitoring arrivals, food, and laundry, and other needs as PHISGOC volunteers will only be deployed November 30 onwards.
Moreover, operators of hotels where athletes are billeted in agreed to share real time updates on their social media sites in an effort to keep the public abreast on the hosting situation.
The 30th SEA Games is expected to require a total of 137,563 room nights to hotels across the four sporting hubs, namely Manila, Southern Luzon and La Union, Clark, and Subic, with delegates staying from November 19 through December 12.
The Clark and Subic meetings came on the heels of the emergency meeting between the DOT and various hotels in Metro Manila where the Tourism Chief gave the directive to ensure that the Filipino brand of hospitality is exercised to the maximum capacity of hotels’ resources and capabilities.
