Online ticketing for ships, buses mulled

CEBU, Philippines —Promoting a seamless tourists’ access to the inter-island destinations in the Central Visayas, the Department of Tourism (DOT-7) is pushing for online ticketing and booking for commercial shipping and bus transports.

“Seamless transportation access in both sea and land is one of the tourism plans we will be pushing,” said DOT-7 regional director Shalimar Tamano.

According to Tamano, his office will be working with lawmakers to make inter-island access much easier for tourists to travel.

A comprehensive tourist transport plan will be crafted by the DOT 7 that will soon be submitted to the House of Representatives Committee on Visayas Development.

Accessing these tickets online will help draw more tourists to a seamless inter-island experience and at the same time allow local government units to highlight their own island destinations.

Remote yet potential tourism destinations will have the opportunity to take advantage of modern travelers’ impulse to explore off-beaten destinations. The more raw and authentic, the more interesting it is especially for the younger breed of wanderers.

The Central Visayas offers a numerous number of barely discovered nature-based destinations such as caves, waterfalls, islets, sandbars, rustic towns, idyllic farm villages, beaches, among others.

“When tourists pick destinations to visit, they don’t only consider the sights they want to see and explore. They also consider how fast and easy it is for them to get to these destinations,” Tamano said.

In an earlier interview with Herald Fries, Sweden’s Ambassador to the Philippines, he said that the “not-good” road networks going to different tourism sites.

Fries admitted that Philippine tourism has great future, but it has to double time in fixing its road infrastructure, as well as other transportation facilities in order to provide hassle-free land and sea transfers.