Travel operators offer roadtrip packages

CEBU, Philippines - Travel operators are now creating different kinds of roadtrip packages while this kind of product has become the number one in-demand product for local and foreign tourists.

Alice Queblatin, owner of Southwind Travel and Tours, and former president of Cebu Association of Tour Operators (CATO) said that Cebu, and the rest of the Visayan region has benefited on this roadtrip trend, the Visayas having a different and varied countryside appeal.

She said the roadtrip packages in Cebu have become an offshoot of the “Suroy-Suroy sa Sugbo” program and because of this, travel operators have already established partnership with different tourism players in the municipalities within the Cebu province, and local government units (LGUs) had also been able to identify their top attraction and destination and are somehow ready to accommodate surge of tourists in a day-to-day basis.

However, Queblatin mentioned that because of the roadtrip trend, countryside destinations within or outside the Cebu province should be able to provide a decent and enough room accommodations for the growing local and foreign travelers.

At present, the most popular package for roadtrip in Cebu is a two-day roadtrip to the southern part of the province, which will only cost P10 thousand for a six-person package, a full-board accommodation, Queblatin said.

A different roadtrip appeal is also growing in Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental, he said.

Although, most the clients who avail of this kind of packages are the younger generation travelers, Queblatin said travel agents have also noted increasing interest from the family travelers, including those balikbayans and the foreigners.

The roadtrip trend, although not a new dimension to travel packages, has become popular nowadays,  the concept of which spawned from the branding “Its More Fun in the Philippines.”

Tourism stakeholders noted that the rural appeal of some unpopular destinations in the Philippines is now one of the main targets for both local and foreign tourists seeking to discover something new.

According to Queblatin the strong interest from tourists to demand for roadtrip package is seen to boost the countryside tourism in Cebu and other parts of the Visayas.

She said this opportunity should be complemented with right infrastructure by the government, including the development of more destinations, tourism related activities, and more importantly, the accommodation facilities, or even the “home-stay” concept.

Queblatin said there are now a lot of choices for roadtrip packages among the travel and tour companies.  (FREEMAN)