To attract European tourists: Cebu told to reconsider expensive hotel rates

While Cebu is positioning itself as a high-end destination, an Italy-based travel maker suggested that it should re-consider its "expensive" rates in order to compete with other destinations in Asia.

Cormorano, one of the largest travel makers in Italy is bringing in Italian and other European nationals to Cebu this year, but warned that if the rates will continue to be expensive, the province may lose the multi-million dollar tourist market in Europe.

"Price makes the destination. Price matters. It is still a lot expensive to travel to the Philippines compared to other destinations like Thailand," said Cormorano director general Giampaolo Wongher in an interview with The Freeman recently.

He added that too much tax is also one of the problems that hamper the interest of foreign travelers to go to the Philippines, because it would make their traveling much expensive.

The Europeans have shown a growing interest in the Philippines travel-wise and Wongher said this could be developed effectively if the rate issue, as well as transportation accessibility will immediately be addressed

Between Thailand and the Philippines, he said it is still much easier for the Europeans to go to Thailand for long-haul vacation escapade because of cheaper accommodation rates and easy transportation access.

He said increased flight accessibility from Europe to Cebu in particular would help motivate quality European travelers to consider the island as their preferred destination over Thailand, Brazil, China, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

However, he said that although the Philippines (Cebu in particular) is an expensive destination, "it's still worth a try." The Europeans like the warm hospitality of the Filipinos and the quality of service in tourism establishments.

For this year alone, Cormorano is projecting to bring in at least 3,000 European tourists to Cebu, mostly Italians, through the huge incentive market in Europe.

Wongher recently headed a group of 140 Italian tourists for a 9-day visit to Cebu. He said that was the first batch of incentive groups from Italy and other parts of Europe that his company will be bringing in to the Queen City of the South.

The coming of the European tourists to Cebu is good news for the Department of Tourism in general and the Cebu tourism stakeholders in particular as they had been trying to attract this wealthy market. The European tourists are known to be good spender and they stay longer in a place compared to Asian tourists.