Home-stay program no longer necessary

The keen interest of people in the countryside to invest on tourism-related facilities such as small resorts and pension houses has made it unnecessary for Cebu to push the home-stay program.

In the past, travel operators in Cebu had problems in promoting good destinations in far-flung areas in Cebu province due to lack of accommodation facilities to host adventure travelers.

"In the last two years, more resorts had been built in some towns in Cebu. Most of the municipalities already have their own commercial resorts or pension houses," said National Association of Independent Travel Agencies (Naitas-Cebu) chairperson Jenny Franco.

The Department of Tourism (DOT) had also been promoting home-stay program in areas that have no commercial resorts, hotel, or pension house, in order to push adventure tourism in the Philippines.

In Cebu, Franco said although the home-stay program may still be applicable in cases when there are over-bookings and swelling of tourist arrivals, but on regular days, the home-stay solution may not be useful.

"All the 47 municipalities in Cebu province, I think have their own accommodation facilities. The Mantalungon for instance is just near Barili, and we can get a booking in a pension house, or resort in the town easily," Franco said.

DOT conducted trainings with families in different towns and cities for the home stay program in the past couple of years. However, according to Franco, because Cebuanos are very resourceful and entrepreneurial, some ventured into building small resorts, or bed-and-breakfast facilities in their own towns, to take advantage of the increasing demand for tourists accommodation.

Cebu may only resort to home-stay program in times of big tourism events, like Sinulog, wherein DOT had to help some travelers who are not able to get a hotel accommodation to be housed in DOT home-stay accredited residences.

Earlier DOT-7 Patria Aurora "Dawnie" Roa said "home stay" program is mostly applicable in Cebu during the Sinulog Festival.