Cebu Business Month opens with Great Cebu Sale

THE CEBU Business Month (CBM) 2013 opened with exciting new colors and events that would help push  Cebu as a shopping capital in the world.

The annual monthlong celebration organized by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry opened last Saturday with a colorful opening salvo at the Terraces at the  Ayala Center Cebu.

This was followed by the first Run for Life, which was participated by at least 2,200 runners yesterday morning.

The first grand event for the celebration was the launching of the Great Cebu Sale campaign brand “Cebu in the Bag: Island Madness Sale” which Cebu Business Month overall chairman Melanie Ng said would be institutionalized and promoted for many years to come.

Ng said the campaign brand would help cement Cebu into the global map of the best shopping destinations in the world.

“We think the campaign really suits the kind of brand we want our tourists to experience. That is when they go home, they have Cebu in their bag,” said Ng.

As of today, there are almost a hundred shops that have already committed participation to the Great Cebu Sale that will run for the whole month of June.

These includes retailers of gadgets, shopping malls, accessories, exporters and the tourism services sector.

malls

Malls like J Center Mall, Metro Department Stores, SM City Cebu and Consolacion, Bridges Town Square, Ayala Center Cebu and Banilad Town Center are participating with exciting mallwide promos said the event’s committee chairperson Camille Aldeguer.

Retailers like All Flip Flops, Cebu Bionic Builders, Gems and Designs, Island Souvenirs, Junrex, Premium Concepts, NGenius IT Hup, Skintech are also participating.

“For now we have almost a hundred including spas, hotels, exporters, airline companies and retailers but we expect more to join us within the month,” said Ng.

Because they are aiming to institutionalize the Great Cebu Sale through the brand, Ng said they had partnered with the different players and organizations like the Creative Cebu Council, Philippine Retailers Association Cebu Chapter, European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Cebu Bankers Club and agencies in the  the public sector like the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Department of Tourism (DOT).

“The DTI has given us their support. The promo has a  permit from them, and they also brought in their OTOP (One-Town-One-Product) entrepreneurs to join us during the Great Cebu Tabo on June 17 in the downtown area,” said Ng.

The DOT has also helped promote the event to the tourism stakeholders and has committed to promote the event not only in Cebu.

Aldeguer said they were not aiming to lock horns with other shopping destinations in the world like Singapore but rather just work more on the campaign to help the tourism industry of Cebu.

ICT/BPO CONFAB

Tomorrow, the CBM will hold the conference for Information and Communications Technology/Business Process Outsourcing Conference at Radisson Blu Hotel.

Issues about the industry and how Cebu can drive more growth for the industry will be discussed during the conference, said committee chairman, Jun Saa.

Other upcoming major events of the Cebu Business Month include the Cebu Creative Industries Summit, Tourism Congress, and the Economic Forum./Reporter Aileen Garcia-Yap