CCCI to push countryside tourism promotion in 2012

CEBU, Philippines -  To further boost Cebu's strength in tourism, the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) will start pushing countryside tourism promotion by next year by helping each town in Cebu province maximize the sector’s wealth as well as improve economic activities in far-flung areas.

Through the program “Serbisyo Turismo” or SET, CCCI will work closely with the Provincial Government complementing the “Suroy-Suroy sa Sugbo” initiative making it a sustainable program.

CCCI president Samuel Chioson said with the help of the academe and business players, including experts in marketing, each town in the province is seen to develop good tourism packaging for their respective attractions.

Part of the plan is to tap the academe and involve the students in the tourism-related courses to take their OJT (on-the-job) training in the different towns in Cebu, thus helping municipalities and private sector stakeholders to promote products and services.

Chioson said Cebu Provincial Governor Gwendolyn Garcia already vowed to support the project, in fact Garcia already vowed to provide brand-new transportation facility for each municipality to service visiting tourists.

Initially, the CCCI tourism committee headed by Milagros Espina has already identified pilot municipalities in the province, for the particular project, which will start early next year.

In an earlier interview with newly appointed Department of Tourism (DOT) secretary  Ramon Jimenez, he has urged Cebuanos to strengthen its move to promote tourism, and aside from marketing Cebu as a destination, promoting the country as whole should also be included.

He said Cebu—the City and the Province, is undoubtedly the center for tourism in the country, and its contribution to the growth of the sector is very crucial, emphasizing the ‘people’ as the primary driver to further tourism growth.

“The real tourism campaign is the ‘people’. It takes people to build an image. Tourism is after-all dependent on the quality of the experience. What makes Cebu as it is today—is not what we see here, but what you feel here,--its all about experience,” said Jimenez. (FREEMAN)