Slow Mactan road repair work may hurt tourism sector – exec

A TOP executive of a local resort hotel in Mactan is calling for the hastening of the road repairs in the Circumferential Road of Mactan Island.

Efren Belarmino, Plantation Bay Resort and Spa general manager, also appealed for better traffic management in the areas where the road repairs were done so as not to inconvenience local residents and tourists.

Belarmino made the appeal fearing the mushroom road repairs or road repair work done in patches could hurt the local tourism businesses in Mactan.

Belarmino said while they couldn’t yet quantify the effects of the road repairs, the ongoing constructions, if not managed well would threaten the local tourism activities.

“The local players here are going towards promoting Mactan as a destination for sports tourism aside from it being known as a leisure destination,” he said.

FEARS

He said he feared that the ongoing road construction would discourage the tourists from coming to Cebu because of the inconvenience.

He said they were hoping that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) , who’s in charge of fixing the Mactan road, and other stakeholders would coordinate and cooperate to hasten the road work and to manage the traffic flow in those areas.

“We can start with good signages indicating which routes to avoid and which are good alternative routes to take from the airport area so that drivers can already plan where to pass to take the guests to their hotels at the quickest and most convenient time,” said Belarmino.

TOURISM BODY

While he supports repairing the roads because they’re among the most important infrastucture projects needed to support tourism growth, but Belarmino said doing the repair work in patches with poor traffic management would defeat the purpose of fixing these roads.

He already raised his concerns to the Tourism Council of Lapu-Lapu City, where he and other representatives from other resorts and hotels in Mactan sit as board members.

“I have already discussed this with the group and Mayor (Paz) Radaza has already also called the attention of DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) because this is a national project,” he said.

Belarmino also met with the Lapu-Lapu City traffic officials who committed to help facilitate and ease traffic in the areas where road repairs were done.

In the past it would only take less than an hour to get to the resort located in barangay Marigondon, Lapu-Lapu City from Cebu City.

But he said with the ongoing repair work, the trip to the resort from Cebu would take more than an hour.

He said this would be very inconvenient for their guests.

BRIEFING

In an economic briefing held at the Radisson Blu Hotel last November, Rebecca Garsuta, DPWH director for project management, said that the widening of the Mactan Circumferential Road was part of their three priority projects for 2012.

“DPWH will be investing about P600 million for these projects, which include the North Cebu Jagnaya wharf road pegged at P220 million, the widening of N. Bacalso Avenue at P123 million and the widening of the Mactan Circumferencial Road with a budget of P300 million,” Garsuta then said.

Belarmino said he would meet again with stakeholders, and DPWH representatives so that they could come up with a win-win solution to the problem.

“I think we need to deal with this right away because it’s the tourism industry that’s in the line. Tourism is a major economic driver especially for Mactan,” said Belarmino.

On sports tourism, Belarmino said the tennis tournaments they earlier hosted in the resort in partnership with the local government already captured the interest of some tourists about the hotel specifically tennis enthusiasts from Japan.

“Last year we saw an increase in the number of Japanese tourists that stayed with us together with their family. Sports tourism has become another good attraction for them because while their children enjoy the pool or go to the spa, the tennis players then play at our court,” he said.

Belarmino said last year there were more Japanese and Korean tourists who stayed at the resort.

ACTIVITIES

“This year we have more activities lined up, which are still in line with sports tourism,” he said.

These include a tennis match between local tennis players of Cebu and players from Sarawak, Indonesia who will be here on March 24.”

The upcoming activities of the resort include a Triathlon event will also be held at the facility on April 1 and an Iron Man event is being set by the Lapu-Lapu City government later this year.

“We’ll hope to have more this year like boxing tournaments and basketball games at the Hoops Dome which is a world-class facility,” he said.