Friday, May 23, 2008 Editorials: Tourism in Central Visayas
SOMEBODY once said that development of a town, city or province, becomes instantly possible if the public and private sectors join hands.
This notion cropped up with the two events that occurred one after the other recently, affecting the air transport industry.
The first one was the ground-breaking rites for the Panglao-Bohol International Airport that was attended by no less than President Arroyo.
The other was the launching of low-cost domestic air routes of the Philippine Air Lines (PAL) that would help make Cebu the hub of the air travel industry in Central Philippines.
PAL and Cebu Pacific Air have somehow taken to Cebu as the navel of their respective domestic operations in this part of the country.
It may only be in the quality of services rendered to the commuting public that they differ, although it is in the quality of services that any public utility may succeed or fail.
Indeed, the public believes at this point that the key to our growth and progress is investment in tourism.
The thousands of South Korean, Japanese, Chinese, American and European tourists flocking to this republic is proof positive of this assertion.
Positive development
And there is wisdom and profitability in investing the blooming tourism industry.
With the weakening of the peso against the dollar, the influx of American and European tourists to Asian countries, particularly to the Philippines, would rise faster.
A stronger dollar would mean higher peso value and so average tourists would be getting more in goods and services for his dollar.
Meanwhile, Cebu being practically in the central zone of the republic has pushed it forward as the heart of the air travel industry.
Its distance from the national capital, and its proximity to almost two thirds of the islands in the archipelago, in a triangle that is almost equidistant from Palawan to northern Samar and to the south, Zamboanga or Davao, places Cebu in a very strategic location.
It makes travel by foreign and domestic tourists to the country’s tourist destinations convenient.
Good prospect
In a sense, the coming of the Panglao-Bohol International Airport, and the cheaper cost of domestic air travel, which has Central Visayas eventually as its hub, assures the region of a satisfactory share of the annual tourism revenue.
The prospect is not bad at all, despite the continuing threat of inflation and the rising cost of living.
