Travel & Tourism Colleagues Being Asked to Change Professional Image of the Industry

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Members of the Travel & Tourism industry are being asked to participate in a new World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) campaign to help change the perception of a career in the sector.

People are being asked to create their own 15 second videos to explain why they love working in Travel & Tourism. Chris Nassetta, President & CEO of Hilton Worldwide is joined by other Industry leaders including Raymond Bickson, CEO of Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces and Thulani Nzima, CEO of South Africa Tourism in kicking off the Instagram campaign, which is intended to demonstrate the career opportunities available.

The campaign comes on the back of new research from WTTC*, which shows that Travel & Tourism holds opportunities for job creation to address the youth unemployment and gender inequality issues faced by countries across the world. The findings show that the sector employs a higher proportion of women and young people compared with the workforce as a whole. The high proportion of youth in the industry is forecast to remain the case for the next ten years.


However, serious challenges have been identified, when it comes to the understanding and profile of the sector**. As David Scowsill, President & CEO, WTTC explains, people need to be persuaded to consider Travel & Tourism as a career option; “Travel & Tourism helps transport people to all corners of the world, immerse them in different cultures and experiences and provides a livelihood to millions worldwide. It’s a fantastic Industry to work in but we need to increase awareness of career opportunities. Graduates need to be moved away from always only considering banking or finance or law as careers with opportunities for progression and security and see Travel & Tourism as an excellent career option. We believe this campaign can play its part in doing that”.

Sumilon Island, Cebu: The Epson Fusion 5 Media Appreciation Adventure

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Epson Philippines Corporation (EPC), one of my favorite technology brands, recently announced some really great news during its annual Media Appreciation Activity dubbed as Fusion and already on its 5th year, held last May 21 to 23, 2014 at Bluewater Resort of Sumilon Island, Cebu. The island is located at the southeastern tip of the Cebu mainland so it was just a boat ride away from Cebu, but about 4 to 5 hours drive away from the Cebu city airport. This was why we chose to take the Dumaguete flight so it will be less time-consuming to travel from Dumaguete to the Sumilon Island.

Several members of the media were among the first ones to hear about Epson's accomplishments for the past year as the No. 1 brand in three different categories namely projectors, inkjet printers, and dot matrix printers. Epson also unveiled 14 new products from four (4) different categories including: Visual Instruments (VI)/Projectors, Inkjet Printers, Commercial & Industrial (C&I) and, Business Systems.

Epson remains the undisputed leader in the dot matrix printer category, with a market share of 97%, it retained its Value (US$) Share Leadership in the Inkjet hardcopy peripherals (printer) market category with 33.1% share in 2013, and achieved the No.1 position in the projector category with a 31.84% market share.

But that announcement was just the tip of the iceberg with regards to a lot of other things to celebrate namely our adventure lined-up within the three days we will be spending starting off from the Sumilon island. Epson may have conquered the said technical categories, but we are set to conquer some water-related activities soon. The Epson management were excited to share with us their wonderful "stats," but we were actually more thrilled to begin our adventure in Cebu and relieve our body of some of our unwanted "fats."

Full Disclosure by Abaya, DOTC Officals of House Probe on MRT-3 Extortion Case

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Officials of the Department and Transportation and Communications (DOTC), led by Secretary Jun Abaya, made full disclosures at the Congress investigation on the alleged Metro Rail Transit III (MRT-3) extortion attempt this morning, as promised by Abaya last week.

"We promised that we would be transparent, so we made full disclosure to Congress. We at the DOTC have nothing to hide, and are as interested as anyone else in uncovering irregularities, if indeed there were any," said Abaya.

It was revealed during the hearing of the House of Representatives (HOR) Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability that the MRT-3 maintenance contract which was awarded to CB&T was made to ensure the safety of its passengers.

"Safety is always our priority. That is our commitment to the public. We resorted to the simplied emergency bidding procedure so as not to compromise passenger safety," Abaya remarked.

This situation arose due to the refusal of the Metro Rail Transit Corporation (MRTC) - the private company which owns the facilities of the MRT-3 - to renew its maintenance contract with Sumitomo of Japan in 2012. The Emergency Procurement mode is provided for under Republic Act No. 9184 or the Procurement Law.