People

Bohol’s Tourism Frontliners are Shiny, Happy People

For one, steering animated tourists, be they a small party of three or a riot of a hundred, to the many a natural splendor of our island paradise (and getting them interested, all the way) requires charm, lots of it. So smile, people, smile.

But, more importantly perhaps, they, in the fore of Bohol’s tourism, have to excude brilliance. So shine, people, shine.

Department of Tourism (DOT) accredited tour guides, undergo rigorous training and rigid written and verbal examinations and actual on-the-field assessments before they are given licenses and official recognition to practice as tour guides in Bohol. They are virtually walking (and ever-smiling) Bohol guidebooks and more, spattering trivia after trivia of Bohol’s history, culture and what-not.

Earning as low as P400 to as much as P3,000 per tour, DOT-accredited tour guides are as professionals as professionals can be. The profession is regulated by the DOT, only those who’ve passed the basic tour guiding training can engage in tour guiding services. Advanced courses may be had to increase their tour-guiding credentials, like a second language, say Japanese or Korean, or a second expertise, say adventure tour guiding.

Perhaps more than their acquired skills, being the faces that educate (and amuse) tourists to Bohol, tour guides have to be particularly sharp and creative in dealing with eager tourists.

It is one thing to recite the litany of Bohol facts and figures that’s all in the book, it is another to be thrown with questions that’s completely unexpected.

In the blood compact sculpture at the Sandugo Shrine in Barangay Bool, this city, shaped by our very own Napoleon Abueva, National Artist for Sclupture, usually the first stop to the Bohol countryside tour that leads tourists to the Chocolate Hills – life-size figures of Datu Sikatuna and Miguel Lopez de Legaspi are depicted raising their cups in what is widely considered a toast to international friendship. The tableau is joined by three other Spanish-looking figures, looking on the two leaders. Who are the other three?

Most of us might scratch our heads in response and shrug: “Who cares?” Now as unlikely as someone would actually care and actually bother to ask the identity of the ‘extra’ trio, sooner or later, someone would. And that someone would most likely be a curious tourist. And, there to answer? Their friendly tour guide. And if the answer’s buried deep in the guide’s brain? Improvise.

“We can never say ‘sorry, we don’t know’ to our guests”, tour guides would say.

Sometimes tourists point out to plants and ask for their names. They have to be able to answer that. Other days, tourist see a carabao lazing in a pool of mud? Why is that? They have to explain that.
They have to know. Or else, fascinate their guests with their charm and wit to keep them from asking such questions.

Smile, people, shine.

7 questions, 7 tour guides

Bohol Island Tour Guides Association of the Philippines (BITGAP), a SEC-registered group of DOT-accredited tour guides in Bohol, has upheld , maintained and advocated for tour guiding standards and professional tour guided services in the province. Their organization aptly uses a catchphrase under its name to highlight the sincerity and professionalism in their services: your professional guide to a sustainable tourism development.

Republic of Bohol sits with seven BITGAP-member tour guides and ask them Bohol Tourism and tour-guiding questions, worthy of a quiz show.

RoB: What’s the most popular tourist site in Bohol?
BITGAP: The chocolate hills. They’re what tourists come to Bohol for, usually. Sometimes, they ask to skip other sites on the way to go directly to Carmen. The tarsiers would go second.

RoB: What’s the most under-rated Bohol tourist site?
BITGAP: In the ones included in the tour package, it would have to be the churches, the church museums. The Luzon people say they have their old stone churches, too, much grander than ours. And among those not included in the countryside tour: the Tarsier Sanctuary in Corella. Also, our caves, we have beautiful caves. Spelunking is still in need of mainstreaming here.

RoB: What’s the most unexpected question you’ve encountered from a guest?
BITGAP: On our roads, you know the ones whose concreting are done in patches, the interval going miles apart from each other. One guest asked: who decides which part gets concretized and which left as dirt road?

RoB: What’s the usual negative comment on Bohol?
BITGAP: Unclean toilets!

RoB: What’s the usual positive comment?
BITGAP: Bohol is paradise!

RoB: What’s the largest tip you’ve received from a guest?
BITGAP: P5,000.

RoB: What’s the smallest?
BITGAP: P5.00 or a big ‘thank you!’

(September 23, 2007)

Tags: bitgap, bohol, tour guide, tourism