Tuesday, June 24, 2008 Naitas raises need for more infra, vows to lure 3.5B tourists for Cebu
A group of independent travel agencies aims to bring in 3.5 billion tourists to Cebu in the next 10 to 15 years.
But Robert Lim Joseph, chairman of the National Association of Independent Travel Agencies–Philippines Inc. (Naitas), said that to achieve this goal, Cebu has to increase its capacity seven times more to accommodate the increase in number of tourists.
“If we have 10,000 rooms now, we should have 70,000 by then,” he said in a news conference yesterday.
That is why, Joseph said, it is important for stakeholders in the tourism industry to organize more events, conventions and forum to invite big players to the country.
He added that through the conventions and trade fairs, the players would also see trade and business opportunities available in Cebu.
This Thursday, Naitas is going to open the second Philippine International Tourism Fair (PITF) where about 100 foreign
international buyers from the United States, China, Japan, Korea, Europe and Russia are expected to participate.
The Department of Tourism has sponsored in bringing the buyers to Cebu, Joseph said.
This year’s tourism fair will be more focused on the promotion of Cebu considering the support of the provincial government to the industry.
“Due to the leadership of the governor, it is only in this province where tourism means business,” Joseph said.
He added that the Suroy-Suroy Sugbo has brought “a lot of impact” to the industry in Cebu.
The Suroy-Suroy program of Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia has evolved into a culture of tourism typical of Cebuanos, said Joseph.
Aside from increasing the room capacity in the province, Joseph said there is also a need to encourage regular charters to ply the Cebu route.
To do this, tourism activities in Cebu and nearby provinces should also be increased, he added.
Jenny Franco, Naitas Cebu chapter president, said tour operators are also promoting adventure tourism in Cebu as well as city sports tourism.
“We are trying to re-package tours for one-day soft adventure tourism,” Franco said. She added that activities under these packages would also include sight-seeing, spa and culture and heritage tours.
The PITF will also feature business to business interaction between foreign buyers and local tourism players.
The group said it already made future plans to sustain tourism growth in the province. Among these is a plan to hold next year a Travel Girl Contest, which will have a national level search as well as an international round that will be set in time for the fourth year of the PITF. (DME)
