Cebu draws more foreign tourists than Camsur

CEBU still has what it takes to be the no. 1 tourism destination in the country despite being toppled by Camarines Sur in 2010, said a veteran travel operator.

“The markets in Cebu and Camarines Sur are different. Camsur is focused on adventure tourism and I’m happy that they were able to build on that niche. Cebu is different. There are more reasons why people come to Cebu,” said Alice Queblatin, Tourism Congress vice president for travel and tours sector in the Visayas.

She said figures of the Department of Tourism show that Cebu has more foreign tourists than Camarines Sur. Camarines Sur recorded 2.33 million tourists in 2010, most of them domestic visitors.

Cebu registered only 1.77 million tourists.

“While we look at the numbers, we are also pushing to attract long-staying tourists who spend more. That is actually the thrust of the private sector now,” Queblatin said.

Based on inquiries in the second half of this year, Cebu will hosting many conventions and incentive travelers or those who are given out-of-town trips by companies are incentives, who are known to be high spenders.

“We are doing a lot of aggressive marketing and tours abroad with the DOT. In July we’ll be going to Singapore and then market Cebu to the consumer market in Malaysia,” Queblatin said.

Former tourism undersecretary Phineas Alburo said that there should be a local forum where local government units, the private sector and the DOT can discuss how Cebu can be further marketed.

He agreed with an observation by Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia that Cebu had become complacent allowing Camarines Sur and Manila to overtake the province in terms of tourist arrivals.

Alburo said Cebu has a lot to offer for the emerging trend of eco-tourism and that more packages and services need to be developed.

Based on DOT figures, the volume of tourists coming to Cebu has been steadily growing at an average of 9.5 percent for the last six years since 2006.

Foreign tourists’ average growth is 14.5 percent for the last six years while the growth of domestic tourists average 7.32 percent.

DOT Regional Director Rowena Montecillo said they based their data on inputs from accommodation establishments in Cebu and not on the number of people who enter air and sea ports.

“Because we define ‘tourists’ as those who stay in the different hotels, resorts, pension houses and the like, we usually get our numbers from them. We don’t know how Camsur is following the same process,” Montecillo said.

Montecillo said the DOT is working on the standardization of the accreditation process of tourist establishments like hotels and resorts which they will use to benchmark against international standards. /Reporter Aileen Garcia-Yap