Espina: Eco-tourism thrills

IT WAS Thursday, between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., on Dec. 9. The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) tourism team (led by chamber president Sam Chioson) and the stakeholders, media and friends troop to the venue host, Diamond Suites, for the first of a series of luncheon press briefing and interaction on the long-term tourism projects of CCCI. The team is led by Nestor Archival, Tess Chan and MCE.

Mila C. Espina

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During the past months, CCCI has been working with the province and city of Cebu, Department of Tourism (DOT) and the various travel and tour groups to realize some feasible programs that could enrich Cebu’s tourist attractions.

So far, CCCI has finished several ocular surveys of new and existing environment-friendly sites with travel and tour key players. It has succeeded in printing 10,000 brochures to be distributed to the tour operators, travel agencies, hotels/resorts/restaurants, the media, airlines, airports, and other interested groups. Called the CCCI Eco-Tourism Trails (First of a Series), this information channel hopes to trigger off more interest in the yet not-fully- explored eco-adventure resources of Cebu.

Next, CCCI will study on how to implement the Hop-On-Hop-Off City Tour that make available bus rides for local and foreign tourists who wish to take affordable trips to designated tourism spots. A dry-run on the time zone/ places within the tour loop (with the city tourism officers, City Traffic Operations Management, and tour operators) was done and the results were quite encouraging. But the sustainability of this project may only succeed with the help of the City government, DOT and, of course, the tour groups. Can you imagine if Cebu makes this program work (just like in London and other Asian cities)! First in the Philippines, indeed. We can only exclaim: “Wow!”

Still in the process of being studied are the much-awaited: Windows of Cebu, a one-stop showcase of Cebu’s products and landmarks; the Information Networking Center; and the resumption of Coffee Break with CCCI. Meanwhile, I will launch a tourism show in one of our local channels and it will be called Windows of Cebu, a prelude to the one-stop showcase of CCCI. This show, which I conceived years ago, will soon be realized and will complement the CCCI tourism thrusts. The press briefing expects to get some insights from our media friends and the tourism stakeholders.