With Global Competition: Tourism players explore new products to keep up

With growing competition in the global and national tourism industry, local tourism players are now searching for new products and offerings for the growing domestic and foreign client base.

“We are now exploring the countryside to develop new products and to be able to pinpoint which of these towns will be best for certain markets,” said Cebu Travel and Tours Association president Cecil Sa-a in an interview during the recently held 4th Vis-Min Travel and Lifestyle Show at the SM City Cebu Trade Hall.

Drawing various crowds from domestic to foreign tourists, travel agents, tour operators, private and public sectors all over the country, the 4th Vis-Min Travel and Lifestyle Show highlighted different destinations and lifestyle offerings of different tourism industry stakeholders such as resorts, hotels, themed parks, tourism representatives from Vis-Min provinces and municipalities to service providers such as cruise ships, airlines, as well as tourism boards from Hong Kong, Sabah and Malaysia.

Since its debut three years ago, the show welcomed 13, 042 trade buyers coming from all over the country and around the region as well as foreign tourists, which generated over P35 million on site sales, said Sa-a. This year, together with the Cebu Association of Travel Operators (CATO), they were able to pull together about 105 exhibitors for a three-day ones-to-shop selling and showcasing event.

Sa-a said that despite the province’s booming tourism sector, our tourism-based products have been the same for a long time thus the need to look out for new prospects.

“Our products here have always been the same so there is a need for us to pin-point which towns can offer new products which our guests can enjoy. This is also a way to help these communities develop and gain added revenues.”

The usual products that Cebu’s tourism industry has been offering to domestic and foreign tourists were our beaches, activities such as diving safaris, island hopping trips, cultural heritage tours to the South and Sa-a said that these products have been there for a long time.

“Cebu lacks theme parks. We still don’t have investors to finance theme park projects so we have to make do of our unexplored towns instead,” stressed Sa-a.

She added that inter-island hopping cruises as well as aerial tours and eco-tourism adventures could be good products they can market specially that there have been aggressive marketing efforts from players for these activities.

With the province’s booming tourism sector, a lot of new markets are also coming in such as Russians and Spaniards and Sa-a said that these are high-end markets with bigger budgets but with specific needs and demands.

She added that most tourists want to visit new destinations in the country which are not yet well-known and they want to avail of affordable and value-for money tour packages.

Sa-a is optimistic that in time industry players in Cebu will become bigger as application for new members will also increase.