Thursday, October 20, 2011
TO BOOOST tourism arrivals in Central Visayas, the Department of Tourism (DOT) 7 is moving to maximize online publications and social media for tourism marketing.
The DOT yesterday helped organize traditional and new media into the Tourism and Heritage Information Network (Think) 7.
Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.
According to DOT 7 Director Rowena Montecillo, Think 7 is a network of mainstream and online media practitioners who are knowledgeable and committed to write about local travel and tourism.
The initiative, which is still to be included in the department’s budget for next year, hopes to generate local tourism stories and foster ties with the DOT especially on tourism-related events.
Network
Think 7 is a network composed of business, opinion, regional and travel writers and reporters from local mainstream media. The department also included the participation of bloggers.
“We need to advertise abroad and even go where these potential tourists are. But it is also a reality today that travelers often use search engines to learn more about potential destinations they have heard through advertising efforts and by word of mouth. This reality leads us to the more immediate task of increasing the number and quality of stories, pictures, and videos circulating online and in local publications about our different destinations in Central Visayas,” Montecillo said in a press conference held at the Cebu Grand Convention Center.
Stories, photos
Montecillo said appealing stories, photos and videos should overwhelm negative stories circulating in the region.
Among the proposed activities of Think 7 are media tours in Bohol, Cebu, Dumaguete and Siquijor as well as incentives for best feature story and photo published and best video posted on blogs and the DOT Facebook page.
Montecillo said she included heritage promotion because tourism is not just all about lovely beaches and resorts but also the city’s history and heritage. “With this initiative, we hope to increase both our local and foreign arrivals,” she said.
Perry Fajardo, executive director of Cebu Business Club and a columnist of Cebu Daily News, lauded the initiative saying it would help build Cebu’s tourism image.
Fajardo noted that the tourism sector is one of Cebu’s growth drivers that helped offset the troubled export industry, which was affected by the global economic crisis.
Local government
But more than the aggressive promotions, Fajardo emphasized the need of local government unit’s participation in uplifting the tourism industry of Cebu such as the creation of maps with right directions.
Tourism arrivals in Cebu grew by 11.33 percent from 1,179,699 arrivals in the first eight months of 2010 to 1,313,316 in the first eight months of this year, according to DOT 7 records.
Of the total figure, foreign arrivals grew by 18.63 percent or 562,673 arrivals as opposed to 474, 319 arrivals in the same period last year. Domestic arrivals, on the other hand, grew by 6.42 percent from 705,380 in 2010 to 750,643 arrivals this year.
Koreans are still Cebu’s top travel market with 250,353 arrivals so far this year. The Korean market grew by 54.64 percent from 161,894 arrivals in the same period in 2010.
The Japanese market, on the other hand, grew by 6.61 percent to 106,946 from 100,317 arrivals in 2010.
Arrivals from the USA were recorded at 50,613, up by 8.68 percent from 46,572 last year. Arrivals from China dropped by 44.19 percent as only 17,818 Chinese visited in Cebu in the first eight months of this year as opposed to the 31,929 arrivals recorded in the same period in 2010.
Arrivals from Australia went up by 23.17 percent from 11,848 to 14,593 this year.
However, Hong Kong arrivals, dropped by 52.57 percent from 18,412 arrivals in 2010 to 8,733 arrivals this year.
Montecillo reported the DOT, along with the country’s tourism stakeholders, have been exerting efforts in convincing Hong Kong to remove the country from its black list.
She said the DOT will conduct a familiarization tour within this year with the members of the Hong Kong Security Bureau, travel agencies and media in the country to show improvements undertaken after the hostage-taking incident last year.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on October 21, 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment