Cebu aims for 4M more tourists
September 26, 2012 at 17:28
CEBU CITY — Business groups here have drawn up a road map that aims to increase tourist arrivals by 15% yearly and draw four million tourists by 2016.
The Cebu Strategic Tourism Development Plan, which was drawn up by the Cebu Coalition of Fourteen (14) Business Chambers, matches the national tourism plan, said Fernando C. Fajardo, executive director of Cebu Business Club.
Key development strategies in the Cebu plan include offering better travel products, improving infrastructure like roads, sustaining a marketing drive so that Cebu would become a popular buzz word among tourists, getting the community involved in the effort, and creating a group to handle all efforts related to tourism.
“The idea is to build on Cebu’s rich historical site and natural attractions but we also need new products and new local destinations. Otherwise, the tourists will be bored,” Mr. Fajardo said in his presentation on Friday.
Sports adventure activities can be an example of a new tourism product, he said.
Developing tourism infrastructure involves providing more accommodation, opening up or widening roads to provide access to northern and southern Cebu, and improving the airport and seaports, he added.
In promoting Cebu, Mr. Fajardo said stakeholders should widen the market by going beyond East Asia countries like South Korea and Japan and moving towards India and the western-developed economies.
To harmonize efforts of individuals and groups related to tourism development, a new Cebu-wide tourism body or council that will “take responsibility for leading, coordinating, and planning the development of tourism” here should be established, he added.
He said Cebu, which has posted an average annual growth of 11.9% in tourist arrivals from 2006 to 2011, is among the best performing destinations in the country but it has been left behind by international destinations like Bali and Phuket.
Foreign tourist arrivals in Cebu nearly doubled to 833,441 in 2010 from 474,720 in 2005, but the figure is only a third of that of Bali, which drew 2.55 million in 2010, and half of that of Phuket, which received P1.69 million tourists in 2010.
Representatives of local governments, government agencies Department of Tourism and Department of Public Works and Highways, and tourism stakeholders signed a declaration supporting the road map.
***
Source: Marilen D. Limpag, BusinessWorld. (23 September 2012)
