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Friday, January 16, 2004
Foreign press to cover Sinulog fest: organizers
By Cherry T. Lim
FOREIGN journalists will cover the Sinulog festivities this Sunday, providing international media mileage for Cebu.
But the shortage of hotel rooms has prevented more journalists as well as balikbayans from visiting the island-province to witness the annual cultural event.
Anna Conejero of Graphic FX Advertising and Design said some 70 members of the Chinese press were coming in through the efforts of the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the Philippine Conventions and Visitors Corp.
She said a German TV company, which regularly covers the Mardi Gras in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, had also voiced its intention to cover the Sinulog after they found the Sinulog “more exciting, cultural and relevant” than the Rio Mardi Gras.
Conejero was unsure whether the German company had finalized plans to come over, saying more European press would have been invited, “but at the last minute, there were no more hotel rooms” for them to stay in.
Cebu Plaza Hotel closed last March, resulting in the loss of 340 rooms in Cebu.
To solve this problem, “floating hotels,” like ships, or home-stay programs may be considered for next year’s festivities, Conejero said.
Graphic FX is handling marketing and promotions for the Sinulog.
Ricky Ballesteros, executive director of the Sinulog Foundation Inc., said some journalists from Tokyo, Japan were also covering the event.
From US
Tetta Baad, committee chairperson of Balik Cebu, said a group of 250 balik-bayans from the United States arrived yesterday for the Sinulog.
The group comprised those who had booked with City Tours and Travel, a travel agency based in Los Angeles.
Since the 1980s, City Tours and Travel has chartered flights from the US to bring balikbayans to Cebu, Baad said.
Turned away
Baad said the travel agency had to turn down a lot more balikbayans who would have wanted to come “because there are no more airline seats and hotel rooms to accommodate them.”
She said a group was also coming in from Canada as Francisco Benedicto, Philippine ambassador to Canada, had already arrived yesterday.
There are no exact figures on the number of balikbayans visiting Cebu for the Sinulog because some of them made independent travel arrangements, but Baad said she “got calls from balikbayans from Australia, New Zealand and Norway.”
For next year’s Sinulog, the definition of “balikbayan” will be stretched to mean “anyone who has been here and who has returned,” which will expand the reception that Balik Cebu will give to not just returning Filipinos, but to returning foreigners as well, she said.
In light of Cebu’s ambitions to attract more foreign tourists, hotel and resort room availability has become an issue.
DOT 7 Regional Director Patria Aurora Roa last week said the DOT had received complaints from Koreans regarding the unavailability of resort rooms.
Koreans
Last October, she said, she had to advise a Korean tour operator not to organize a tour in Cebu because there were no rooms available.
Patrick Gregorio, president of Waterfront Philippines Inc., said Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino in Lahug had been rejecting reservations for the Sinulog since November because it was already fully booked for January.
(January 16, 2004 issue)
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