Visayas ‘ready for the big ones’

ORMOC CITY--The Visayas region is more than ready to welcome trade and tourism investments from across the country and the world, said lawmaker Lucy Marie Torres-Gomez yesterday.

Speaking at the 25th Visayas Business Area Conference attended by 500 business delegates, Gomez, the representative of the fourth-district of Leyte, is convinced that the Visayas, particularly the Yolanda-hit areas, are ready for bigger investments, as rebuilding initiatives continue to open up more growth opportunities in various industries like trade, tourism, and agribusiness.

“Visayas is ready for business to boom, and not just small business. We are ready for the big ones,” said Gomez.

In the area of tourism, Gomez, who is named chair of the House Tourism Committee, told the participants that now is the time to aggressively promote the island, when it is still in a rugged and raw state and is still in the process of becoming its best version of a tourism destination.

The island, though, has to recognize and organize its human capital and embark heavily on marketing and promotions, the lawmaker emphasized.

“Tourism is mind-conditioning, making others see things through your eyes,” said Gomez, adding that increased confidence in selling or promoting a tourism product goes a long way in attracting more tourists to visit a destination.

Confidence

“Bali is a top destination and all throughout (the trip) I realized that everything they have there, we also have here. But back there, from food to drink, to sound to sight, everything is presented with a confidence that is absent in a lot of places here in the Philippines,” said Gomez, comparing Bali’s tourism culture with that of the Philippines.

“In Bali, they make no apologies for what they think or feel is interesting,” she noted.

The lawmaker believes that if the region is able to effectively market its tourism strengths without getting intimated by other destinations, it could attract a good slice of the tourism pie.

“We (Visayas) are a diamond in the rough waiting for our edges to be polished so that the rest of the Philippines and the world can see that we are worth it. Change is here. But, let us not wait for things to be perfect before we begin moving in the direction of our dreams,” she said.

Upside of tourism

“We need not be polished and perfect. We are not America, Europe and China. We may never be as glossy as Makati, but we are the Visayas—different, just as wonderful, just as beautiful,” Gomez added.

Like Gomez, the business community also believes tourism is a perfect entry point for increased investments.

“We have so much upside in tourism,” said Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) president George Barcelon.

During his recent trip to the 13th ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Vientiane, Laos, Barcelon said he kept on telling representatives of ASEAN countries to also promote the Philippines.

He made a presentation with the chairman of Thailand’s tourism industry for a possible co-branding project with the Philippines.

“I asked them maybe they can also carry the Philippines in their posters so when people go to Thailand they get exposed to what the Philippines is and come here,” said Barcelon.

Moreover, PCCI is also working with Tesda for a skill mapping project funded by a German foundation. He said they are helping enterprises map the skills they need for their industry. The chamber has piloted a skills training activity in Batangas for tourism-related services.

One Visayas

Two years ago, the three regions in the Visayas came together to promote diving tourism and other tourism-related activities to provide more options and to lengthen foreign tourists’ stay in the country.

Western, Central and Eastern Visayas have united to come up with one tourism campaign to market Visayas as a diving destination internationally through the One Visayas tourism platform.

Karen Tiopes, director of Department of Tourism (DOT) 8, said One Visayas is a good avenue for the Visayas islands to be at par with the other top destinations in the country by capitalizing on each other’s common tourism strengths.

“We don’t want to compete but rather share our resources,” said Samar Gov. Sharee Ann Tan, during the panel discussion.

Gomez also brought up the promotion of local travel retail as a competitive edge. She said the quality of the products is already assured falls short on the packaging and needs a compelling story to share.

“We need to pay attention to detail because it is only then we can compete,” she said.

Food is another avenue to attract foreign and local tourists to visit the Visayas, said Amor Maclang of Geiser Maclang Marketing Communications Inc.

She added that the regions need to work together to improve infrastructure connectivity. Maclang suggested that the regions work on implementing a sailing circuit to ensure easy connectivity between islands.