Exploring tourism and making productive teams

Playing a significant role in Cebu’s vibrant tourism industry is Alice Queblatin. Aside from running her own travel business, Southwind Travels and Tours Philippines, she serves, too, as president of the Cebu Association of Tour Operators (CATO).

As an authority in local tourism, Queblatin has supported the Cebu Provincial Government in the institutionalization of the Suroy-Suroy Sugbo and helped develop course modules for tourism officers in Cebu on tour packaging, destination marketing, tour costing, as well as product development for the province’s tourism destinations.

Her travel business has been recognized as one of the key players in the industry for both inbound and outbound travel. According to the Southwind Travels’ website, Queblatin’s company was chosen as Tour Operator of the Year by (SKAL) International in 2000. Southwind’s outbound department has also been consistently recognized by major airlines as one of their top producers.

This time, Queblatin shares two books that fed her interest in the tourism and travel business.

“Come Closer: How Tourism is Shaping the Future of Nations” by Anita Mendiratta is an invaluable resource for tourism leaders and policymakers. Published in 2011, the book offers a framework for strategic and practical tourism. Queblatin emphasizes that nowadays, tourism is not just for leisure, but an activity that impacts the economy, and its social dynamics, as well as the sustainability of global communities.

“One Minute Manager Builds High Performing Teams” by Ken Blanchard, Eunice Parisi-Carew, and Donald Carew, explores the concept of teamwork in a successful organization. The book explains how all groups move through four stages of development on their way to becoming high-performance teams: orientation, dissatisfaction, integration, and production.