Promote Cebu as a shopping haven

As Cebu is fast becoming a hub for various tourism ventures, stakeholders from the industry are looking at developing other areas to sustain the attractiveness of the place for both the local and international markets and one of which is through the promotion of shopping tourism.

In her presentation during the Tourism Summit held at the CICC in line with the activities of the Cebu Business Month, Angel Bognot from the National Association of Independent Travel Agencies or NAITAS said that Cebu has a huge potential to tap into the market of shopping tourism.

Shopping tourism according to Bognot is an added value to the country’s tourism offerings and since Cebu is fast becoming a metropolis with a burgeoning retail industry, shopping tourism will have huge potential to hit just like in other Asian shopping destinations such as in Bangkok, Thailand Singapore and Hong Kong.

“Shopping is a very important component of Philippine tourism development. There is a huge marketing viability for shopping tourism because travel provides people with opportunity to purchase goods of lesser expense and higher quality while shopping involves spending money posting an economic impact to the local economy,” Bognot explained.

Bognot also added that shopping tourism can spark community tourism as well because it can create a need for creation of more local jobs as handicrafts and souvenir items will be more in demand for tourist consumption.

But Bognot underscored the need for promotions and effective marketing strategy in pursuing shopping tourism. She said that “strategizing” any form of tourism activity will mean success.

She enumerated the considerations for shopping tourism and said that existence of shopping malls is very essential.

Incorporation of shopping promotions is also another thing as well as the development of other support services such as transfers, shopper’s guides and among others.

Aside form these, a huge budget is also required not only for joint promotional efforts but at the same time in providing exceptional entertainment that will provide more attractions for shoppers.

Bognot proposed that to jumpstart the promotion of shopping tourism, a shopping brochure is essential as well as the institutionalization of a shopping holiday, which is being practiced in other shopping destinations of the world.