DTI dips hands in tourism to help microentrepreneurs

CEBU, Philippines — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is dipping its hands to help the tourism players, particularly the micro and small businesses.

“We are now dipping our hands in tourism, at least within the [Central Visayas] region,” said DTI assistant secretary Asteria Caberte during yesterday’s virtual MOA signing among industry-wide business organizations to officially launch the Great Cebu Sale to be held on September 15 to October 15, 2020.

According to Caberte, tourism being the center of economic make in Cebu specifically, has to accelerate albeit slowly, in order to pull up other industries.

In close coordination with the Department of Tourism (DOT-7) and the Cebu Provincial government, Caberte reiterated her confidence that the economy will bounce back perhaps much faster than expected.

Aside from the frontliner businesses in tourism like hotels, resorts, restaurants, the retail side is also very much part of the tourism ecosystem, including the fruit and vegetable vendors along tourism highways, small suppliers, among others.

Various plans have been drafted to support tourism-related MSMEs in Cebu and in the region, among those is supporting liquidity challenges of MSMEs in tourism sector, the Negosyo Serbisyo sa Barangay, , the big budget allocated under the Bayanihan 2, among others. “We have a lot of MSMEs under the tourism value chain,” she mentioned.

Caberte also lauded the aggressive tourism reopening efforts initiated by Cebu Provincial Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, saying this could make Cebu rise faster.

“We are still expecting a lot of hurdles as we move forward,” she admitted but quick to assure that challenges the industry is facing especially in inter-island travel shall be addressed accordingly.

DTI had also been helping small diving shops in Moalboal to survive and get back to business slowly. Likewise, some fruit and vegetable vendors along national highway also are getting support from DTI what she described as “face-lifting” of their stores, and “heart-lifting” as well.