Tourist arrivals in CV up 12.2% in 1st 6 mos.

CEBU, Philippines - Tourist arrivals in Central Visayas for the first six months of this year recorded a growth of 12.2 percent as both domestic and international tourists continued to flock to the region.

Department of Tourism (DOT-7) record showed that this figure is higher than the 10.6 percent growth recorded in in the same period of 2011.

Combined visitor arrivals in the region in the first half of 2012 reached more than 1.4 million, up by almost 200,000 from the more than 1.2 million in the same period of last year.

Foreign visitor arrivals in the region has especially been increasing at a faster pace than domestic visitor arrivals since 2010.

According to the report, this is reminiscent of the pre-financial crisis scenario in 2005-2008 when the international tourism market was the main growth driver of the region’s tourism industry.

“This is good for the region as well as for the country, as this means that new money is being infused into the local economy through the increased spending of foreign tourists,” the report said.

Except for Bohol, all provinces in the region posted double-digit rates of increase in visitor arrivals.

Negros Oriental registered the highest growth rate with visitor arrivals up by 29.7 percent. Siquijor had the second highest growth rate in tourists arrivals at 17.7 percent.

Bohol saw a plunge in arrivals, down by 4.4 percent in the first six months of this year, compared to the same period last year.

Based on the report, the slow down in foreign arrivals in Bohol pulled down the total number of arrivals in the province even as domestic visitor arrivals was up by 6.8 percent.

Nevertheless, in terms of actual number of visitor arrivals, Bohol remained as the second most visited province in Central Visayas accounting for 12.0 percent of total regional arrivals.

Meanwhile, Cebu is continuously pursuing development in the tourism sector to take advantage of the positive development of the industry.

Industry players are now strengthening its partnership with the local government units (LGUs) to further improve Cebu’s attraction to both local and foreign tourists.

Aside from plans to put  more facilities  to the existing destinations Cebu can offer, stakeholders are also encouraging the government as well as capitalists to join the bid in making Cebu  more attractive to the affluent travelers.

“Cebu needs more five star or six star hotel and resort facilities. It needs signature brand shops, nicer and bigger museums, and more attractions that could entice the high-end foreign tourist market,” said National Association of Independent Travel Agencies (Naitas) chairman emeritus Bobby Lim Joseph.

Although Cebu has good potential to hit the six million arrivals in the short term, he said,  it could generate high tourism receipts, if it intensifies its call to invite high investments in the tourism services and products sector.

“We have to develop Cebu as a high-end destination, thereby attracting the big MICE [Meetings, Incentives, Conference and Exhibition] market from all over the world,”said Joseph. (FREEMAN)