Receptivity to ASEAN integration: The case of Puerto Galera tourism professionals

• Main Author: Nehlsen, Mary Lyka Tuan
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2017
• Subjects: Tourism > Philippines > Puerto Galera
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/5517
• Institution: De La Salle University

Tourism industry is an important element in the ASEAN Community complementing wide range of priorities and opportunities in envisioning the ASEAN 2020. While the ASEAN community has taken off to exciting period of development and the ongoing evolution of its region, several arrangements and core initiatives have been adopted to continuously promote the integration, the community-building process and greater mobility, and to enhance the competitiveness of the ASEAN Region. The Mutual Recognition Arrangements for Tourism Professionals (MRA-TP) is one forward-looking initiative of the ASEAN Integration designed to facilitate the mobility of skilled workers within the ASEAN Community. The key to this arrangement is the recognition of skills and qualifications of working tourism professionals from its member states. The main objective of the MRA-TP is to produce a Competent Tourism Professional with greater mobility within the ASEAN Member States. The study concerns about the receptivity of Tourism Professionals in the locality of Puerto Galera to the MRA-TP. Results of the survey questions based on receptivity to change instrument concludes that attitude of Puerto Galera Tourism Professionals towards the MRA-TP is positive. While various studies on Receptivity to Change agree that changes differ in characteristics and may pose various degrees of benefits or threats to individuals, it is argued that attitude can be crucial in determining the success and failure of the change process. Receptivity as applied in this research is associated with attitude: the epistemological value of open-mindedness and the willingness to accept change in perceiving the guidelines of the MRA-TP.