Introduction and Elements of Culture

2. INTRODUCTION TO CULTURE, DIVERSITY
AND WORKPLACE
• The breadth and width of the tourism industry and impact can be felt significantly not only
within tourism but in many industries that support tourism as well.
• It impacts providers of products and services that are needed by tourists, employees within
the workplace, and customers, all of whom may come from various locations, locally and
internationally, and with different backgrounds.
• The tourism industry contributes 7% of the world’s total gross domestic product or GDP.
• This translates to approximately 1.7 trillion dollars that fuels the world’s economy. According
to the world tourism organization (WTO), by the year 2030, there will be at least 1.8 billion
tourists from the estimated population of 8.5 billion, that is approximately 21% of the
population traveling.

3. • In the Philippines, the industry contributes 12% of the country’s GDP, which
translates to php2.2 trillion that fuels the Philippine economy based on 2018
statistics.
• Total employment during this period grew to 5.4 million jobs, and this is only for
those directly working in tourism enterprises.
• The Philippine department of tourism estimates a steady growth in tourism
arrivals as well as in tourism jobs from 5% to 7.5% annually for the next 10 years
or until 2028.
• Many tourism-related establishments in the Philippines employ multiculturally
diverse local and international workforce due to its intrinsic characteristic that
requires unique expertise at various levels and functions.

4. • The Philippines is an archipelagic nation.
• The department of environment and natural resources in 2016 released new
information through the national mapping and resource information authority that
there are 7,641 identified islands in the country, more than 7,107 islands that
were previously known.
• Each of the islands can have unique cultural practices that are transmitted
through the people and work in various tourism enterprises in any of the islands
of the Philippines.
• Food variances, language differences, and religious practices can be great
learning opportunities within the workforce or can create challenges in the
workplace that must be resolved for teamwork to happen.

5. • Internationalization in the workplace is created when specialty chefs are
employed by food service facilities such as hotels, restaurants, and airline
catering companies to cook country-specific cuisine like the more popular
french, spanish, italian, indian, japanese, and chinese dishes.
• Some cuisines have also been gaining popularity like thai, vietnamese, korean,
arabic, greek, and portuguese.
• These expatriate chefs usually stay in the country for at least two years and their
interaction with local chefs creates learning opportunities for our local chefs to
learn how to make authentic or fusion cuisine.
• Many of these chefs completely immerse themselves in filipino culture and end
up staying longer or even settling down here and marrying our countrymen.

6. • Nationality is another element of cultural diversity a tourism professional will
have to address in the workplace.
• This will be presented along with other elements of culture that create
opportunities for commonalities and diversities in other areas, such as
languages and dialects, religions, sex, customs, and traditions.
• This subject course will explore multicultural diversity starting with the basic
principles and concepts, followed by an experiential perspective that will show
how these concepts are practiced.
• Balancing concepts with cases of real day-to-day experiences is the best way to
carry these lessons in our lives as tourism professionals.

8. • Culture refers to the socially constructed and learned ways of behaving and believing
the identity individual and distinct social groups.
• It is a shared practice of a group of people.
• These may include the following: beliefs, values, knowledge, assumptions, experiences
and ideas, customs, rituals, symbols, myths, and legends of the people in the
community, social activities, economics, politics, agriculture, industries, laws and ways
of justice, security, health, environment, education, and religion.
• Culture shapes a person’s identity and influences the way how he/she thinks, behaves,
and forms his/her values system.
• It is a dynamic based on new developments in society that can impact a group of
people.
• These are passed on from one generation to the next, and some of the elements may
change over time.

9. ELEMENTS OF CULTURE
The selected elements of culture that impact the tourism professional are the
following:
1. Art
2. Beliefs and values
3. Geography
4. Language
5. Law and politics
6. Religion
7. Technology
8. Social organization

10. A visual representation of culture is shown below with some of
the significant elements that can impact a culture from a personal
perspective.

11. ASSIGNMENT
Out of the 8 elements of culture, choose 2 elements to
define and give example. Do this in your facebook
official page.