Local travel agents explore new Cebu tourism products

CEBU, Philippines - As the tourism sector continues to be competitive especially at these times of global economic meltdown, Cebu’s travel industry stakeholders are poised to create more reasons to entice both local and foreign tourists.

In an interview with National Association of Independent Travel Agencies (NAITAS) chairman for Cebu Chapter and the president and managing director of local travel agency Travelvision Jenny T. Franco, she said that their members are currently exploring more tourism-related activities that could be offered to sustain the growing tourism arrivals in the province.

She said that amidst the concurrent issues and challenges faced by the travel sector such as the global economic crisis and the recent threats of the H1N1 flu virus; their sector continue to strengthen their efforts in developing more tourism products and even existing ones.

“Before, we only have plain city tours for our guests. Now, we have reclassified these tours to provide different sets of experiences for the different interests of guests such as culture and heritage,” said Franco.

She said that they have been working with the City Tourism Council to improve the city’s heritage sites such as the Fort San Pedro near the Port area and our museums.

Franco said that in the countryside, they also continue to explore new areas and create new activities that could be presented to our guests.

Franco said that right now, Cebu’s travel sector is eyeing a growth area from emerging markets like the Middle East, China, Russia and India.

“Beginning last year, we have started to see significant increase of Middle Eastern tourists, Chinese and Russians so we are strengthening our promotions to continue growing our arrivals from these markets,” said Franco.

She said that tourism activities like diving, caving, bird watching, and other adventure tourism-related activities are some of the most popular activities that these emerging markets would enjoy and they are also looking at introducing some packages that include these products.

Franco said that aside from culture, heritage and tourism-related activities, they are also looking at creating tour packages that will showcase Philippine food delicacies prepared by locals which could interest these markets.

Right now, Franco is working with the Mayor of Aloguinsan to promote organic farming which can be a good tourism-related activity that could be offered to foreign tourists.

She said that there are also other alternative activities like river cruise, boating and whale watching that could be interesting not only to foreign but as well as to domestic tourists, which has been notably growing.

“There are a lot of products that we can offer foreign and domestic tourists but we still have to develop and explore some of them to see how it will help us in attracting more tourists to come to Cebu,” said Franco.

Meanwhile, Cebu Association of Tour Operators (CATO) past president and managing director for Southwind Travel and Tours Alice Queblatin said that through creating a festival directory in Cebu, travel agents can easily create tour packages that will be tailored fit to promote different destinations in Cebu and guide them in coming up with activities that could be appealing to tourists.

She said that this calendar of festivals is still being finalized and mapped out by the sector along with the Department of Tourism as the involvement of the local government units (LGU) are important in this undertaking.