Cebu wows world tourism delegates!

Cebu is indeed on the go, despite the challenges we face with the current global financial crisis, which despite the G-7’s pump-priming effort people seem to have lost confidence in the banking system. Perhaps this is due to the reality that too many homeowners lost their home mortgages, while their governments bailed out the rich banks. While ASEAN wasn’t spared from this financial debacle, the wake-up call we suffered during the 1997 Asian crisis was a lesson that our banking system learned in order to strengthen our bank regulations, which is why we haven’t been hit as hard.

As we wrote a few weeks ago, despite the global crisis, the City of Cebu closed real estate deals with Robinsons Land Inc. in the North Reclamation Area and with Filinvest Land Inc. at the South Road Properties (SRP). The latest report we got on the SRP was that Pueblo de Oro and now the giant SM are seriously making offers to the City of Cebu. These investments in the SRP give Cebuanos an assurance for a bright future.

Last 21-25, Cebu played host to the 6th International Tourism Forum for Parliamentarians and Local Authorities under the auspices of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) at the fabulous Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa. They were congressmen, senators or members of parliament and local government officials from 60 nations who were in Cebu for this World Tourism Forum as delegates and very high-profile tourists. Indeed, Cebu is now in the global tourism map!

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) was the keynote speaker last Wednesday and her message to the UNWTO delegates was, tourism can be a tool to fight poverty, that tourism can create more jobs and opportunities where there were none before. She also cited a new program dubbed “Grassroots Entrepreneurship for Eco-Tourism (GREET),” which is a community-based tourism initiative for the countryside.

Actually what President Arroyo talked about was Gov. Gwen F. Garcia’s backbone “Suroy-Suroy” tourism program that was hatched way back in 2004 when Garcia first became governor of Cebu. In the early 90s Cebu’s vaunted Tourism Cebooom only benefited the promoted areas like the beach resorts in Mactan and Bohol. But the Suroy-Suroy program allowed tourism to spread to the whole province of Cebu. Now the problem is the lack of hotel rooms in the newly tourist-saturated areas of Cebu.

Last Thursday evening, I attended another UNWTO function at the SM’s Northwing Atrium dubbed “Glimpses of Philippine Lifestyle” hosted by SM’s Marisa Fernan, Tourism Secretary Ace Durano and the Fashion Council of Cebu. This was actually a presentation of Cebuano culture, which is a confluence of Indo-Malay, Spanish, Chinese and American influences through the centuries, a cultural diversity resulting in a rich and unique heritage in food, music, fashion and dance.

The show started with the various views of Cebu from that very thick coffee table book that Marisa launched a year ago called “Cebu: Pride of Place.” This was followed by a presentation by the Fashion Council of Cebu. I have seen many fashion shows in the past and unless you are into high fashion, they are usually boring. But honestly I was quite surprised by that show because it began with the pre-colonial (they are called Pintados) Indo-Malay influence in OJ Hofer and Cary Santiago’s designs. This was followed by Philip Rodriquez’s Spanish-inspired elegant designs that impressed the tourism delegates who jam-packed the Atrium.

Next was Chinese influence (from Fukien province) in Cebu’s culture that inspired the Chinese silk designs of Jun Escario and Jojo Romoff in bold colors of red, yellow and gold, an influence that is still very much with Cebuanos today. Then came American influence, which we got from film and later from television that inspired Arcy Gayatin and Albert Arriba to present clothes of Western design.

Finally, the delegates got a glimpse of the Philippine terno celebrating the femininity of the Filipina, the epitome of grace, elegance and beauty. The delegates gave the show a rousing applause because this very special presentation (directed by Engr. Junjet Primor and Vince Escario) was created especially for the UNWTO delegates.

I talked with some of the delegates and they were impressed that Cebu is so rich in culture, heritage and talent. The foreign delegates learned a lot about Cebu and how our tourism industry has matured. If they read the local dailies, they would have learned that Cebu is now the number one outsourcing destination in the world! Even if they didn’t read the news, Cebu’s hosting the Tourism Forum wowed the international delegates!

* * *

For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.philstar.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, “Straight from the Sky,” shown every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.