Abstract:
This study strived to measure the level of implementation of tourism programs as indicated in the Tourism Act of 2009 and evaluate the governance in selected tourism offices to further verify the basis for tourism programs in the province of Bulacan. The governance of the local tourism offices in the search for further analysis on the level of implementation of tourism programs in their respective municipalities or cities, the evaluation of the practiced governance were based on the following components: 1) Human Resources Management; 2) Strategic Leadership and 3) Organizational Development which would help some up the background of why and how the tourism programs are implemented in the local government offices in Bulacan have their current state. The level of implementation of tourism programs were stratified into three basic functions: 1)Tourism Development Planning; 2) Tourism Promotions and 3) Tourism Standards implementation. There were a number of implications specified in the findings and were analyzed and were given solutions through the action plan recommended in Chapter 5. First, local government offices should be able to review the national policies in the tourism industry to come up with more viable and significant programs for their municipalities or cities. Tourism policy is necessary before any planning activity should be facilitated which magnifies the need to align any project or plan to the policies mandated by the governing bodies, which is the Department of Tourism in our country. This is especially useful in the province of Bulacan as the tourism officers do not have tourism as their educational background. Good governance can only be exercised if the right people are in the right position (Manento, 2010) whether or not, tourism offices' heads or staff are tourism graduates, the ultimate challenge of tourism is to have a paradigm shift on the attitude on service. Tourism is a service-oriented sector (UNWTO), it exists to be of service and not only on the value of investment returns. Tourism programs should be implemented with basis and not on the basis of giving a good name to the local government office management. Thus, the creation of an action plan to alleviate the tourism industry situation in the province is truly found necessary and was given light in this study.
|