A Joint Project of the:

Department of Tourism Bureau of Fire Protection Regional Office V Regional Headquarters 5

TERMINAL REPORT

Tourism Awareness and Capability Building for BFP: Training on Effective Customer Service and Tourist Safety and Security for BFP R5

Motorists Assistance Centers Emergency Response Attendants

Submitted to :

MARIA O. RAVANILLA Regional Director

Department of Tourism, ROV

Attention:

Mr. Bobby Gigantone Training Specialist, DOT V

By :

Head, BFP 5 Training Secretariat

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. MAIN ACTIVITIES CONDUCTED AND ACHIEVEMENTS

1.1 Project Background

1.2 Risk Management Roles : Hotel Fire Safety/ Destination Management

1.3 The Development Objective

1.4 Specific Objectives

2. SUMMARY OF INSIGHTS ON SAFETY AND SECURITY

3. RECOMMENDATIONS

ANNEXES

1. BFP Region 5 Head of Offices

2. Fire Safety Visit Project Visit, Post Implementation Report

3. Attendance of Participants

4. Seminar Program

TERMINAL REPORT OF THE TOURISM AWARENESS AND CAPABILITY BUILDING FOR BFP

1. MAIN ACTIVITIES CONDUCTED AND ACHIEVEMENTS

1.1 Project Background

Its all about Tourism - a means for Bicols economic recovery. The regional clamor to boost tourism for economic recovery was felt by the BFP only in 2008. The strategy was a challenge for all sectors of the society to support. Any local economy relies on tourism as a key component for economic recovery. If proper measures are not taken post-disaster effects from weather related disasters, equipment breakdown / power interruption and fire can have rippling effects in a local economy.1

This dare was met by BFP R5 head-on with socially relevant services, which are crowd drawers and a necessity in line with its mandate, going beyond Civic tourism.

As civic tourism inspires public interest to include government agency potentials, the BFP with its prospective goes beyond, for while it reframes the industry to do better, the BFP advances the opportunity for economic development by preserving character through the following activities, to wit :

Firefighting skills tourism Frontline-destination-information service Risk management on Hotels and destinations

Firefighting Skills Tourism

The year 2009 launched the BFP Day Event when it was accepted as a permanent cost-free activity of the Magayon Festival up to this day, which started the incomparable Firefighting Skills Tourism. All entities in Bicol with firefighting capabilities gather at the Albay Pearanda Park to compete with one another on a yearly basis.

Barangay Volunteer Fire Brigades, Industrial Company Fire Brigades and BFP personnel region wide are inspired show-off their uniforms, particularly their firefighting skills for public awareness and assurance of how efficient their firefighters are. The competition is a guaranteed unique yearly spectacle.

Significantly, it opened-up the commitment of Industrial Companies to their immediate communities of responses to fire calls in support of their local fire stations, with their participation to the First Bicol Industrial Company Fire Brigade Competition in 2014.

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1 Disaster Preparedness, Economic Recovery, and Resiliency http://restoreyoureconomy.org/resources/topic/tourism-recovery

Frontline-Tourist-Information Service

In November 26, 2012 the Albay BFP was given FREE-Orientation training by the Provincial Tourism and Cultural Affairs Office (PTCAO) on tourist destination information around the province.

The concept was to equip firefighters-emergency medical responders deployed at Summer Vacation (SumVac) / Motorist Assistance Centers with enough information to guide travelers.

As one of the agencies who performs local rescue, all BFP Fire Stations deploys emergency response personnel along major thoroughfares to provide quick reaction time for responses primarily to vehicular accidents, and related emergencies. The assistance given varies on the need of travelers ranging from flat tires, hypertension, and for SumVac centers located in resorts the BFP also functions as life-guards in the absence of one.

Common requests are for directions of destinations: Churches, beaches, restaurants and etc. The function to provide information on destinations or tourist spots in the region was an intervention to these, and that there was the aura of disappointment in the person asking whenever there is no solid reply given. The traveler or tourist experiences isolation lost for directions as they dont feel welcome, thus frustrations and to finally deciding not to go hindi naman palasikat thus, there is no point in going as the place is not that popular.

For these, the BFP included state-of-isolation to mean lost or requiring directions in its list of types of emergencies. The Tourist-Ready-BFP project was first implemented in the province of Albay, in 2012 and now region wide this year.

Risk Management

In preparing Albay on hotel and venue safety for the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) coming to the province, the BFP R5 came up with Oplan Panturismo purposely to establish an operational risk management in destinations to identify and recommend solutions. The Oplan Panturismo also created the Fire Safety Visit or Project Visit that was also used as the strategy on hotel safety for Oplan APEC that compelled all Hotel Staffs to undergo the following:

a two hour lecture on risk management : Hotel Safety and Managers/Owners Responsibility

Written examination scheme as a focus group discussion (FGD) activity Table-top exercise

Project Visit also enforced the creation of a Hotel Emergency Plan, which was a first for all Hotels in Albay or Bicol for that matter. (See Annex: Fire Safety Visit Post Implementation Report).

1.2 Risk Management Roles: Hotel Fire Safety / Destination Management

From information ambassadors on tourists destinations, the BFP became more relevant as it affirms more its institutional role in ensuring hotel and destination safeness.

During the lecture on safety and security of Tourist, the fire safeness or safety integrity of Hotels in particular was discussed and the speaker implied that the DOT has its own fire safety requirements. This triggered a need to verify and to reconcile the safety requirement of all Hotels of the Department of Tourism with that of the Bureau of Fire Protections R.A 9514 otherwise known as Fire Code of the Philippines of 2008.

Under the risk- management-philosophy, the most competent regulation of fire safeness on structures should be one that is molded by both experience and research and enacted by law, and in this instance, the fire code of the Philippines. The mother code of the Philippine Fire Code (P.D 1185 as amended by R.A 9514) is the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) the international authority on fire safety and prevention.

Further, the speaker informs that as a DOT accredited speaker he has his own international version of fire safety lectures admitting to the fact that fire personnel can be an overlooked risk factor in risk management. Considering the competency and commitment of firefighters as fire prevention specialists, they are the most qualified individuals to lecture and practice risk-management in terms of property protection. The speaker suggests that the local fire office be invited to lecture instead for purposes of rapport and personality.

In terms of risk management for sustained business continuity, hotel owners and managers should be prepared to respond to disasters and all unforeseeable events with training from the BFP. Every hotel management knows that a continuous delivery of quality customer experience is critical to the hoteliers competitiveness, financial well-being and reputation. Safety inspections or risk-identification by any fire unit of deficiencies, also prioritize corrections, as risk-management is itself a solution to improve compliance and promote safety.

Ensuring hotel safety is part of property protection. Property risk management plays an important part in prevention and protection strategies that address critical building systems and equipment, electrical safety, fire protection, among other things, as it is also important to guest experience, comfort and life safety.

The role of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) as a regulatory agency on fire safety under the Risk Management Philosophy has emerged out of the very appropriate increased concern for hotel occupants and firefighters safety and survival in case of a fire incident, that the BFP is qualified to the risk agency title.

The BFPs risk management in the strictest sense is more of a preparatory approach, where safety of the occupants is the priority.

1.3 The Development Objective To promote Bicol tourism through agency potentials and risk management fire-

safety-regulations prescribed by the Fire Code of the Philippines. This Tourism Awareness and Capability Building Seminar altogether complements the Tourist-Ready-BFP project.

1.4 Specific Objectives The specific objectives of the project are:

Re-tooling of motorist assistance centers emergency response attendants on effective customer service

Implement a frontline tourist destination information system

To set up an all-inclusive Motorist Assistance Centers to all types of emergencies to include isolation

Provision of technical assistance for an operational risk management for hotels and destinations

2. SUMMARY OF INSIGHTS ON SAFETY AND SECURITY

The seminar disclosed that the main appeal of a destination that tourist look for is safety and security, and that it is also the number one prevailing current issue affecting tourism. The following are information shared by the speaker which requires action from the BFP, to wit:

a. DOT has criterion guide books on star rating system, that includes fire safety

b. Transport vans, does not have fire extinguishers

c. DOT has no trainings on risk management -hotel safety and security with firefighters as trainers

d. No reporting system for safety deficiencies

3. RECOMMENDATIONS

With the gained insights from the seminar, the following are recommended:

a. The DOT to create a technical working group with the BFP as member to review fire safety criterion on the DOT manual against the safety provision of the R.A 9514 otherwise known as the Fire Code of the Philippines;

b. The DOT should issue a Policy that all vans identified as transports for Tourism Purposes should be equipped with fire extinguishers;

c. The DOT to strictly observe the conduct of risk-management lectures on property protection against fires to all hotels and destinations, with BFP personnel as trainers/resource speakers. Likewise the DOT should accredit risk-management-auditors from the BFP;

d. The DOT to come-up with a guest reporting system on hotels or destinations disregard to fire threats or other similar risky situations for action of the local BFP.

SFO3 Aramis Aristhedes A Balde, MPA Head Secretariat / Section Head, IIB

SFO2 Reynaldo L Vergara _________________ SFO2 Maria Luisa R Gongona _________________ FO2 Kenneth V Nieva _________________ FO2 Franklin R Tomindog _________________ FO2 Eunice B Camu _________________ FO1 Ednale N Lovendino _________________

The Tourism Awareness and Capability Seminar for BFP March 7-9, 2015 @ Jennifers Kababayan Hotel, Inc.

Guevara Subdivision, Legazpi City