Roperos: Marketing Cebu

THERE is now an effort to market Cebu’s tourist attractions to the Japanese as part of the strategy to increase tourist arrivals to the province. A group that calls itself the Cebu Tourism Task Force is spearheading this effort.

As it is now, South Korea is the “largest source market” of tourism for the country but Japan runs second. But Rowena Montecillo, the director of the Department of Tourism (DOT) in Central Visayas, has noted the increased flight frequencies from Japan to Cebu and that the province can exploit this. Montecillo also chairs the Cebu Tourism Task Force.

The Philippine Air Lines (PAL) operates a Cebu Narita flight twice daily, and flies to Osaka four times weekly and Nagoya three times weekly. Cebu Pacific flies to Narita four times weekly.

Montecillo said that her department saw the potential of attracting more Japanese tourist to visit the Philippines following the countries’ participation in Japan’s Sapporo snow festival in Hokkaido. There, the snow sculpture of the Manila Cathedral was a major feature.

She said that it was part of the DOT’s endeavor to attract more Japanese tourists during “Visit the Philippines Year 2015” activities. She hopes that Cebu can also get a slice of the number of Japanese tourists that will be flocking to the country.

“After all, we already have increased flights to Japan,” she said.

The Philippines aims to sell the country’s beaches and other natural attractions to potential visitors from Sapporo, which is Hokkaido’s capital. The DOT, through its Tourism Promotions Board, updated travel stake holders in Hokkaido about tourism developments in the Philippines.

The DOT Tokyo attache Valentino Cabansag, in a statement, said he believes the agency will breach the 500,000 threshold of Japanese arrivals to the Philippines in 2015, which would make he country a major tourist destination for outbound Japanese travelers.

The growth in the number of deluxe hotels in major tourist destination will prove opportune to local tourism, he added.

But the focus of DOT 7 and GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Inc. (GMCAC), which initiated the Cebu Tourism Task Force is to attract some of the Japanese tourists to tourist destinations in Cebu. DOT 7 and GMCAC will reportedly visit Japan this month for a travel mission.

Since GMCAC is the private operator of the Mactan Cebu International Airport, it will also introduce new features there like putting up signs translated to Korean and Japanese, as well as automated announcement system that is multi-lingual.

This is a good move and will be beneficial to Cebu in general. It is time that tourist destinations in Cebu be marketed aggressively to increase tourist arrivals here.

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