Tourism school to open in Boracay, Cebu

The Canadian Tourism & Hospitality Institute (CTHI) will be putting up two campuses in Boracay and Cebu by next year and 20 more branches in various tourist destinations in the country.

During yesterday’s launch of CTHI’s first campus, CTHI president Samie Lim said the aim was to put up a branch in key tourist spots in the country, starting with Boracay and Cebu.

The first campus, on the second floor of the Paragon Plaza in Mandaluyong City, would be a pilot campus, he said. Another company-owned campus would be put up, followed by 20 more that would be owned by franchisees.

The CTHI campus in Mandaluyong is a franchise of the Canadian Tourism College from Vancouver.

Lim said that some countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region had expressed interest in buying franchises as well.

“For the Asean, we’re eyeing at least 100 campuses. We’ve had some interest from Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam,’’ he said in a briefing yesterday.

These franchises, he said, would come from Franchise Investment Holdings Inc. (FIHI), the holder of the master franchise for the Canadian Tourism College.

FIHI would also get master franchises for the region from various brands and concepts all over the world, he said.

“Everybody feels the need for this (kind of undertaking), but nobody has concretized their plans. We want to have a transfer of knowledge to others,’’ he said.

CTHI’s Mandaluyong campus started operating on a pilot basis last year, and had trained around 400 students in different tourism and hospitality sector activities.

The school offers four-year and two-year courses, as well as short courses lasting just two months. One-day workshops are also being offered. Abigail L. Ho