DOT Undersecretary Benito Bengzon Jr. said the ESL programme follows the development strategy for other products like MICE, cruising, medical tourism, and farm tourism.
The Philippine Department of Tourism (DOT) said it was working on a roadmap for its English as Second Language (ESL) programme to take advantage of demand for specialised tourism products.
DOT Undersecretary Benito Bengzon Jr. said the ESL programme follows the development strategy for other products like MICE, cruising, medical tourism, and farm tourism.
“We will soon roll out a roadmap for education tourism, specifically for ESL for which Cebu is a top-notch destination among different markets,” Bengzon said.
DOT is keen on developing ESL, citing the country’s leadership in teaching foreign students to learn English.
ESL is seen as a service opportunity for Filipino entrepreneurs, who can offer the service to new markets like China and Japan as the country experiences a shortage of bilingual workers.
Meanwhile, Bengzon disclosed that DOT is also restarting its global advertising efforts and review the implementation of the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP).
“As part of our desire to maintain stronger presence abroad, we are now about to complete our feasibility study on the recommended DOT foreign offices... so we can be more responsive and effective,” Bengzon said.
“We will also review the NTDP. We have to look out for which programmes we can continue and those that we can tweak or discard altogether,” he added.
The DOT official said Philippine tourism has been able to manage its key markets well despite internal and external challenges.