Aerial tours: Emerging tourism service in Cebu

CEBU, Philippines - While Cebu and its neighboring provinces in Southern Philippines are now attracting sophisticated and adventurous tourists, aviation service provider Aviatour has introduced another facet of tourists’ activity attraction.

Aviatour, a Cebu-based specialized aviation provider is taking advantage of the emerging aerial tour, air-taxi package, a kind of service only popular in more developed destinations, like Hawaii and European popular tourism sites.

Providing aerial tour, air-taxi packages and chartered flights to tourists who have no time to take boat ride going from other islands from Cebu, is now an emerging tourism service in Cebu, said Aviatour marketing director Binky Veniegas.

In an interview, Veniegas said the company is currently running at an average of 20 tours a day, availed of by some local clients, and mostly Korean, American and European tourists.

To date, the company is posting at least 20 percent increase of its chartered tour service, specifically those tourists that do not have time to spend few hours in boat ride and land trips.

Aviator, a full-service general aviation service provider based in Cebu with offices and operations in other key cities in the Philippines, and United States, is the first to offer this kind of tourism package in Cebu.

The aerial tours for instance is one of the new tourism packages the company is introducing, which is considered as an emerging tourism service, including the provision of air-taxi offering.

Aside from the traditional island hopping, Aviator is taking Cebu’s capability to accommodate sophisticated tourists, by providing another service dimension, which was only popular in other countries.

“An aerial tour offers another view of the country’s beautiful islands. Cebu, which is the tourism hub in the Visayas is fit to cater to this new tourism activity because it is closely connected to other major islands in the region,” Veniegas said.

At present, Aviatour’s popular destination for both aerial (flight tours) and air taxi packages include Siargao, Leyte, Bohol, Bantayan Island, Camotes, Siquijor, El Nido Palawan, among others.

“The Philippines has over 7,000 islands and what better way to see these places but up in the air. That way, tourists get to maximize their stay in the country,”   said Veniegas.

Because of the strong reception from local and foreign tourists to this kind of service, she said the company is planning to expand its services, from adding number of aircraft and offering more services, such as sky-diving.

Started in 2002, Aviatour is in the business of flight training (through its flight school) flight tours, chartered flights, and brokerage and aircraft repairs.

Today, the company has a fleet of more than 35 airplanes with approximately 70 employees.

Meanwhile, as part of Aviatour’s promotion to raise the bar in Philippine aviation industry, the company announced its participation of the ongoing 16th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, which is currently being held at the Clark Special Economic Zone in Angeles City, Pampanga. The event which was opened yesterday will run until the 13th of this month.

“We want the world to know that we have a vibrant and growing aviation industry and highlight the fact that the Philippines is one of the top destinations for flight training. People come to the Philippines to fly because it’s safe, cheap, and accessible,” said Aviatour president Jemar Bahinting.

Also, the company is strengthening its bid to heighten the awareness about aviation and opening the doors to the public that there are career opportunities in the aviation industry, Bahinting concluded. (FREEMAN)