EDITORIAL — It’s those little things

One photo now going viral on the internet shows a portable toilet or portalet overflowing with the bad stuff at the Cebu North Bus Terminal.

The figurative stink has gotten so bad that Governor Gwen Garcia is set to meet with the company that maintains them, especially as the Cebu North Bus Terminal, like its counterpart in the south, sees its fair share of passing local and foreign tourists.

This isn’t the only wrinkle tourists here came across recently. Right now there is also a post by a netizen about how she and her friends were stranded in the mountaintop attraction Tops in Barangay Busay, Cebu City, for a chilly night after alleged confusion and mismanagement regarding the schedule of buses that were supposed to take them back to uptown Cebu City.

We might have big plans for getting back our groove when it comes to the tourism industry here, but it’s the little things that can make or break those efforts. It’s these little things that can eventually turn into big issues when they serve as turn-offs to would-be local and foreign tourists.

Just regarding the portalet issue, toilets are something that cannot be taken for granted. Everybody needs to go every now and then, especially those on the go. As to the Tops issue we don’t have to explain how crucial a transport service is, especially to somewhere as remote as Tops.

What may seem like little annoyances or inconveniences experienced by some visiting tourists may actually turn into warnings when they share the news back home, especially if nothing is being done about these annoyances or inconveniences.

As the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president recently disclosed, the tourism situation in Cebu is still recovering from the worst of the pandemic lockdowns. We still have quite a long way to go to restore our tourism industry to its former pre-COVID-19 glory. It would do us well to make sure our tourists don’t get inconvenienced by the little things that turn into big things.