Sunday, August 26, 2007 Tourists like locals’ ‘warmth, hospitality’
AN EXIT survey the Department of Tourism conducted on visitors showed that what the tourists like most is the “Cebuano warmth and hospitality.”
But Tourism Secretary Ace Durano, in a presentation during the Sun.Star Economic Forum, also revealed that tourists believe taxi drivers and immigration officers need to improve their attitude.
The survey was conducted on “outbound” tourists as respondents in Cebu’s international gateway, the airport.
On the evaluation for facilities and services, the visitors were asked to give a “1” for excellent, “2” for good, “3” for average, “4” for fair and “5” for poor.
With “2” as the benchmark used by the tourism department, taxi drivers failed, with a rating of 2.53, and immigration officers, 2.48.
Target for excellence
“With all the horror stories we have heard, I thought they would have a poor rating but I’m glad they are between good and average. However, we target for excellence and not just good,” said Durano before stakeholders of the tourism industry gathered at the Marco Polo Hotel.
Those who received the highest mark in the tourism services are hotel personnel, with 1.6.
Resort personnel follow with 1.71, restaurant attendants with 1.77 and safety and security personnel, with 1.86.
Moreover, 55 percent of the respondents said that what they liked most in Cebu is the people’s kindness and hospitality.
Those who like most the beautiful sceneries such as beaches are 44 percent of the respondents.
Topping the list of “dislikes” by tourists is the humidity in Cebu, but Durano recognized that there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
Others on the list of what tourists disliked, however, could be improved, such as heavy traffic, dirty environment and bad roads.
Street garbage
Geoffrey Markwick, a tourist from England, said that while one could not change the whole island overnight, the government should strive for an efficient garbage collection aside from spending more on infrastructure.
“One thing you notice here is that there’s lot of rubbish around. It was as bad in the Western countries 30 years ago, so this problem of yours is not really insurmountable considering that people are more ecologically aware now,” said Markwick.
Max Schefer from Switzerland noted the same thing, saying that something must be done to clear the streets of garbage.
Earlier, a high ranking official from the French embassy also cited the need for Cebu City to clean its surroundings. (JPM)
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