DOT tells Lapu: Cut red tape to improve tourism

“The lesser the fees, the checklist and processes, the more income we get from tourism.”

This is what Tourism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez, Jr. said yesterday when asked about the Lapu-Lapu City ordinance requiring tour operators accreditation from the local government unit.

According to Jimenez, local government units and other stakeholders should take a very long term point of view on how more they can earn from tourism and adding more fees and processes is not among them.

“All the local government units particularly Lapu-Lapu City must understand that we have to have fewer fees and simpler systems to encourage more tourism,” said Jimenez.

In July, tour operators and tour guide groups called on Jimenez to come down to Cebu and help them resolve the issue.

They said the requirement of processing another accreditation, aside from the one issued by the Dept. of Tourism (DOT), in Lapu-Lapu City is redundant and is only another “money making” scheme.

Cebu Association of Tour Guides (CATG) president Judalyn Taghoy said all the tour guides find it unreasonable when they already have a national-issued tour guiding identification card and they also have undergone tour guiding trainings conducted by DOT.

Tour operator groups Korean Travel Agency Association in Cebu (KOTAAC) and Cebu Association of Tour Operators (CATO) agreed and lent their support to CATG.

The DOT in Central Visayas however is optimistic, a compromise is possible.

“We have already met with the mayor (Mayor Paz Radaza) who was willing to listen. The ordinance is now on ‘status quo’ until we can come up with an IRR (implementing rules and regulations) that will be agreeable to everyone,” said DOT-7 regional director Rowena Montecillo.

Montecillo added that DOT will be part of the committee that will layout the IRR for the ordinance.

“We are happy that Lapu-Lapu City government is very responsive. We will be working closely with them in all endeavors especially that we are now trying to determine the product of each locality,” said Montecillo.