Suroy-Suroy Sugbo: An unsolicited advice

The deafening drums muted, the energizing beats dissipated and the equally revitalized crowd degenerated.  Simply put, that’s where we are right now.  That unequivocally means that the tourist-drawing week-long Sinulog 2013 revelries are finally over.  Such is the reality of the Sinulog festivities as far as our tourism initiatives are concern.  It gives us a week bounty.  Considering that a year has fifty two weeks, it simply means, a week of abundance and fifty one weeks of scarcity. 

This is true in all countries all over the world that are solely dependent on festival-related tourism.  So that, for sustainability reasons, these countries have organized trade expos, in between their festivals, to have constant influx of opportunity-seeking travelers and leisure lovers alike.

Fortunately for us, a good concept was then introduced, the Suroy Suroy Sugbo (SSS), an initiative of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce (CCC).  As conceptualized, it was originally envisioned to invigorate tourism by developing places of interest and constructing infrastructure.  However, as we’ve witnessed, it was carried not in the way it was envisioned but is used by suspended Gov. Gwen Garcia as her political propaganda machine at taxpayers’ expense.

Gladly though, last week’s SSS was carried with decency as acting Gov. Agnes Magpale never politicize it.  In fact, based on newspaper accounts, participants have enjoyed the trip and noted marked differences from their previous trips.  Regrettably, however, bad habits are not just addicting but contagious, as some town mayors (allied with the suspended governor) took a dig on acting Gov. Agnes Magpale by welcoming the participants with huge tarpaulins bearing the faces of acting Gov. Gwen Garcia and her brother, gubernatorial candidate Cong. Pablo John Garcia and the singing of their One Cebu party hymn.  Seemingly, the depth of suspended Gov. Gwen Garcia’s narcissistic ways is just so unfathomable that it was also deeply embedded in the hearts of equally egotistic mayors as well.

It is not a hopeless situation though.  The fact that a decent change is initiated, SSS will be differently better in the near future.  Hopefully though, they shall be able to revisit the original concept of SSS and incorporate some relevant points to improve it.  First and foremost, this administration should be reminded that there are three significant areas that the provincial government and other tourism industry players must work on.  These are (1) product development, (2) adequate infrastructure and (3) promotion and marketing.   As we have all observed, among these areas of concern, promotion and marketing is done through SSS but done by suspended Gov. Gwen Garcia in a wrong way.

On product development, Cebu took pride of its long stretches of beaches as if we are the only island that has it.  While it’s noteworthy, we must not forget that Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand have longer, cleaner and more serene beaches too.  Yet, despite their natural gift, they’ve developed theme parks, amusement parks and other places of interest.  Why can’t we do the same through private sector initiatives by giving the private sector local tax breaks or incentives?  The LGUs, on the other hand, must make sure that these places of interest are reachable by providing the necessary infrastructure.  Then, jointly, all tourism players (LGUs included) must make a collective effort in promoting the island. 

That way, LGUs’ funds shall be realigned to focus more on infrastructure development.  The tour and travel operators, businessmen as they are, will certainly package tours if the products are saleable and reachable.  In fact, as we speak, Mr. Alan Dino, senior vice president of Dong Fang Philippines Leisure Corp., took the initiative of re-introducing weekly charter flights between Cebu and China through the City of Guangzhou starting this month.

Thus, clearly, through initiatives like these, tourism in the island will be a daily affair not a yearly or a quarterly event.

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