A wake-up call for Cebu's tourism industry!

We’ve been having a very busy week because I had to do my 10th anniversary taping with my good friend Capt. Joy Roa of Air Safari TV, who was the special guest on my show. He also had me as his guest on his TV show. As we finished our shooting at the Marco Polo Hotel yesterday morning, I joined the 888 Forum and got into the tail end of the forum with Presidential Spokesman Gary Olivar as their guest, hosted by my good friend Inday Malou Guanzon-Apalisok.

The Presidential spokesman focused on the Central Philippines Super Regions that comprising the Regions of IV-B, V, VI, VII, VIII, Camiguin and the island of Siargao. This was also the main focus of the media briefing we had at the Heroes Hall in Malacañan with the media from Cebu, Bohol, Negros and Panay last Friday with Tourism Sec. Ace Durano.

Indeed, Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s focus on a massive infrastructure development has resulted in the tourism boom within the Super Regions. Incidentally, the Tourism Data was the subject of yesterday’s editorial in The Freeman entitled, “Is Cebu Losing in Tourism Campaign?” This stemmed from the report that Camarines Sur (CamSur) posted the highest increase in tourist arrival in the year 2008 to 2009. This is to be expected because previous to 2008, CamSur had nothing to offer in terms of Tourism. But with the development of their watersports there, they were able to lure domestic tourism, many of whom took buses from Metro Manila.

Meanwhile, we in Cebu already posted a very high tourism arrival rate, hence our base figures were already higher than CamSur and naturally our incremental increase is very small, compared to the huge jump of tourists going to CamSur. Hence those figures shouldn’t be alarming as we think it is. However, it should be a wake-up call for our local government units specifically in Mactan. We need them to fix their growing traffic problems and clean up the major thoroughfares where tourists would go sightseeing.

Many tourists are going straight to Bohol after arriving in Cebu simply because Bohol now has a lot more to offer than Cebu. In fact, some resorts in Bohol are already charging rates higher than the top resorts in Cebu because of their tourism boom. The Loboc River cruise is no longer just a day destination, it has an evening cruise where the riversides are lined with beautiful lights, making for a romantic dinner cruise.

Cebu City no doubt needs more tourist attractions in order to lure in more tourists to our city. To date, we only have the sprucing up of the Parian Park and monument as Cebu City’s only tourism project. I have always said that Cebu City needs to come up with a monument for the Cebuano Guerrillas, who fought valiantly against the Japanese Imperial occupiers during World War II. But the only World War II historical monument we have can only be found in the shores of Talisay City to commemorate the landing of the Americal Division to Cebu.

But there was a big fight up in Busay Hills between the Cebu Guerillas and the American troops. Yet that is not being given any importance by our national and local historians. We don’t even have a monument to Col. James Cushing, who led the Cebuano guerillas to the fame they achieved when they captured the highest ranking Japanese Naval officer ever to fall in the hands of the Americans in World War II.

So before Cebu loses our tourism market to our neighboring islands, I dare say that it is high time for our Local Government Officials to sit down together and map our plans or strategies to make Cebu once more the tourism destination of choice. Call it our usual complacency that Cebu was able to get to the top of the list in many glossy international tourism magazines; however, we should never sit on our laurels and work harder to make Cebu a place that tourist would come and have an unforgettable stay.

The second part of the 888 Forum had as their guest, former Cebu Governor Emilio “Lito” Osmeña who is running for Senator under the Promdi banner, which stands for Probinsya Muna Development and Initiatives (Promdi). Lito Osmeña talked about the values that we used to have and told us that if those values you have would match the values of the Presidential candidate, then you should be voting for that candidate.

But Lito pointed out that he was championing the middle class and honestly said this even at the risk of being called “Anti-Poor.” But he is right, the poor don’t want to be rich; they just want to become middle class. More importantly, Lito said that the middle class are the folks who are members of the SSS and GSIS and therefore they pay the biggest burden in taxes. Finally we have a champion for the Middle Class in Lito Osmeña.

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