Updated March 04, 2009 12:00 AM
CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) Tourism committee will work with different private and government sector groups to come up with exciting tourism products in the province that will maximize the un-explored destinations in Cebu.
CCCI Tourism committee chairperson Milagros Espina announced that her group will conduct a “brainstorming” session with the Department of Tourism (DOT), Cebu Association of Tourism Operators (CATO), Local
Government Units (LGUs), and the Cebu Association of Tour Guides (CAT-G), to develop a new face of travel packages to tourists, exploring undiscovered yet interesting sights in the province.
This is the main thrust of the upcoming “Tourism Summit” that will be held in June this year, as part of the Cebu Business Month (CBM 2009) event.
Initially, Espina said the group is contemplating to carry the theme “Explore Cebu” considering that there are lot of attractions Cebu has to offer, other than the traditional tourists’ attractions, such as Magellan’s Cross, beaches, and Fort San Pedro, among others.
In response to the global recession, that is expected to lessen the foreign arrivals in the country, Espina said Cebu will offer more attractive travel packages that will also stimulate interest from the domestic market.
“We are going to the basic. There are a lot of alternative destinations that can be developed. We have just to unite in pushing and promoting these attractions,” Espina said.
Espina mentioned that in other towns in Cebu, there are a lot of heritage-rich destinations. Some towns offer fantastic adventure and sports tourism attractions, while other towns have unique nature sight-seeing advantage.
Cebu’s diverse culinary offer can be a good product component to lure tourists, she mentioned the traditional “puso” or hanging rice, to be promoted well and give a unique twist, to maximize this distinctive Cebu product. “We will make ‘puso’ an interest product.”
According to Espina, CCCI together with identified stakeholders in the tourism sector will make the legendary “Suroy-Suroy sa Sugbo” as springboard in pursuing a more dynamic promotion of countryside tourism.
In collaboration with experts in the tourism trade that will be tapped by CCCI, Espina said Cebu is on its way to introducing another exciting phase in tourism, exploring the unexplored destinations, discovering newer and fresher sights within the province, thereby waking up the tourism “wealth” in different towns in Cebu that has been sleeping for a long time. — Ehda M. Dagooc
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