Cebu: More than just Sinulog

Last Saturday, the deafening drums have started to roll and the energizing beats have begun to tickle everyone’s foot and buttock.  With its dominance, every tourist (foreign or domestic) may think that this is it, the Sinulog Mardi Gras. Yet, this was just the Sinulog sa Kabataan.  Truly, a lot more can be expected as the celebrations and competitions heighten towards Sunday. 

Then, as usual, the day after, the deafening drums are muted, the energizing beats dissipated and the equally revitalized crowd degenerated.  That unequivocally means that the tourist-drawing week-long Sinulog 2014 revelries shall be 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. 

In countries like Morocco, Egypt, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand and tiny island nations such as Fiji, their emphasis in tourism is largely different.  This is due primarily to the huge intake of money it derives for businesses.  So that, knowing fully well that the tourism industry favorably affects many industries and offers a lot of employment opportunities in the service industries associated with it, these countries made tourism a daily affair, not an annual event.   

In a way, some of these very successful countries, in terms of tourism, are holding festival-related activities too.  However, for sustainability reasons, these countries have developed theme parks and 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 and Industry (CCCI).  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 was used by then Gov. Gwen Garcia as her political propaganda machine at taxpayers’ expense.

It is not a hopeless situation though.  The fact that a decent change is currently 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 then 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 gifts, 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. Thus, clearly, through initiatives like these, tourism in the island will be a daily affair not a yearly or a quarterly event.

Indeed, we truly understand the necessity of promoting our tourism potentials both here and abroad.  The need to inform potential market of our capabilities is unquestionable.  In doing so however, we must not forget that like any business, the key to any success is continued patronage. This can only be achieved once we can develop a strong customer base that will not only give us repeat businesses but shall tell the world of our unparalleled capabilities.  

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