THE government and the private sector in the four provinces in Central Visayas are urged to cast off their selfish interests and work together to increase tourist arrivals in the region, which is considered the tourism gateway of the country.
One way to do this is to initiate more activities and include them in tourist packages, said Marget Fernan-Villarica, director for the Cebu Association of Tour Operators (Cato).
Villarica, during the monthly professional get-together of the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P)-Strategic Business Economic Program Alumni Association of Cebu last Wednesday, said the region has so much potential, if only government and the private sector can work together.
In her speech, she said concerned sectors in Cebu, Bohol, Oriental Negros and Siquijor should develop attractive tour packages that travel agents can sell as single tour products.
“Oriental Negros and Siquijor, for instance, have caves and waterfalls. But we can’t just look at them in the pictures. We have to make them accessible and make more potential markets aware of the existence of these sights,” said Villarica, also president of Destination Specialists Cebu Inc. and incoming vice-president for the Cebu Travel and Tours Association.
This is a way of helping the country achieve its target of five million tourist arrivals by 2010, she said.
Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano earlier announced that the Department of Tourism is targeting 3.3 million tourist arrivals and $5.8 billion in tourists’ expenditures for 2008 from 3.09 million tourist arrivals and $4.89 billion in expenditures last year.
Support
UA&P Alumni Association of Cebu president Exuperto “Pert” Cabatańa noted that the thriving tourism industry in Cebu could be attributed to the support from both business and the public sector.
He observed that this synergy is gradually happening in the other provinces in Central Visayas as well.
Meanwhile, Cato is promoting “twin-city” destination packages, such as Cebu-Bohol, to maximize the tourism potentials of the two neighboring provinces through one tour product.
The participants during the meeting agreed on the need to improve the efficiency of hotel services and amenities offered in the shipping industry. They also raised the need for theme parks, cultural centers and more hotels, “like Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort,” to be able to compete in the global market.
Mactan Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Efrain Pelaez, for his part, raised the need to maintain the beauty of the country’s natural resources, like the beaches that have been one of Cebu’s “assets.”
Forum participants also agreed on the need to get parishes involved in tourism efforts since religion also contributes to the industry. (NRC)
