Cebu One of Asia's best Islands

[arnoldsa]

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Marco Polo Plaza Hotel.....

the former Cebu Plza Hotel... contract signing will be this July 25, 2005... watch for the reopening of this hotel soon...

[rusty18]

Marco Polo Plaza Hotel.....

the former Cebu Plza Hotel... contract signing will be this July 25, 2005... watch for the reopening of this hotel soon...

Nice! sounds exciting..

by the way bro have you heard of Club Ultima's King's Island Mactan? J King's co., same group who's building the Crown Regency / Club Ultima in Fuente Osmena. i've seen the rendering on their giant wall painting sa office nila last year but couldnt find a photo online. it's situated in a man-made island and is goin to have an underwater bar & restaurant, two hanging or mini suspension bridges, etc...

[arnoldsa]

Yeah I've heard that but I don't know exactly where in Mactan it is located...

[arnoldsa]

There are many ways to make Cebu more attractive to tourists.. This is based upon what I saw in other countries...


1.) Create a tourist police

2.) Only the establishments accredited should be allowed to operate (money changer, airport shuttles, etc... etc...) This should be strictly enforced..

3.) Full Development of Carbon Market, Tiangges, Colon St. area, etc...Â* with the deployment of law enforcing agencies to enhance security in that area... (The Carbon Market area could very well become like a night market or a shopping area pretty much like those found in Bangkok and Hongkong)

4.) Aside from the Sinulog, create a "Grand Cebu Sale" in partnership with all the malls and stores in Cebu... This should run for one whole year perhaps... This should be similar to the "Great Hongkong Sale," "Great Malaysian Sale.." etc.. etc.. etc..

5.) Create a law regarding beach resorts... NO STRUCTURE should be built at least five meters from the shoreline... The beaches in Mactan are for God's sake very very dirty looking with all those structures jutting out to the sea..

6.) Hotels SHOULD LOWER their rates... One tourist complained that at $50, one can already get a luxury accomodation in their country while here its only a Pension house..

7.) Support for former Mayor Alvin Garcia's "Cebu Heritage Walk" which includes the full restoration of all the historical buildings in Colon and other related developments... This has been partially accomplished... If you go to the downtown area, one can find "Spanish Style" lampposts being put up... This project was similar to what Richard Gordon did to Intramuros in Manila...

8.) Identification of tourist belts in order to enhance their development:
Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â*- Fuente Osmena Area all the way up to Capitol
Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â*- Downtown Area (security should be enhanced)
Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â*- Mactan Island
- Lahug from JY Square all the way to SM City (needs more development)
Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â* Â*- Malacanang sa Sugbo and Plaza Indepencia Area (needs more development)

9.) Full development of the North Reclamation Area.... Driving at the M.L. Quezon Highway from Plaza Independencia to MAKRO reminded me of ROXAS Boulevard.. Why not develop this area? With the help of the Ayalas, this can be achieved....


many many more... Please FEEL FREE to add... hehehe

[clarkhkent]

very well said arnoldsa.....

suroy suroy sa ko sa dakbayan para makahibaw ko kon unsa pa ang angay ipuno....

[arnoldsa]

Cge bai, add more... nindut unta if naay volunteer system here in Cebu City...

Like for example.... convince at least 3 balikbayans you know to visit and spend in Cebu... For every three you bring, the DOT will give something in return... Dapat pod unta mu cooperate ang private sector ug hasta ang publiko...

[DutcheD]

Your suggestions are actually great. The question is, when will the Cebu DOT do something like this aggressively? Will they get funding? Will they be disciplined and ambitious enough to achieve the end goal? Will they be honest enough to spend the funding for this project? Will existing organizations support the tourism project or will there be sourgraping orgs who want to also make money out of it? So many questions. We can have great ideas but if the people going to implement these are not committed and honest then sayang kaayo.

Anywho, its free to create ideas and dream.... so I will grab the opportunity na rinÂ* .

1. TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE - Make the connection from the airport to these touristic belts really easy, not only with planes, but with boats, buses, jeepneys, trikes, or whatsoever. For example in Thailand, you can just go to a dilapidated travel agency in one of the nooks of Khao San Road (in Bangkok) and book a ticket to let's say Krabi island. The ticket already include your 1. train to Surat Thani, 2. transfer shuttle to the port, 3. boat to Krabi. Not only that, they have daily schedules of the transfer that is fully accesible to other travel agencies. How organized! And cheap by the way.

Sadly, we don't have these in Cebu, well not in the Philippines. Our tourists are left on their own. If the travel agencies offer them something, the prices will be skyrocket high because they do not have the cheap alternatives, they only have private charter planes which are ridiculously expensive.

2. AGGRESSIVE MARKETING in EUROPE - Don't they know that the widely travelled species in this planet earth are the Europeans?! The DOT people are barking up on the wrong tree. The Europeans have minimum 26 vacation days in a year and they travel 2x to 3x a year outside their country. Heck, the northern Europeans every summer ransack the south of Europe (Spain, Greece, and Portugal... Turkey is also a new favorite). Well, they can also offer the same packages in the Philippines(?!).

Okay let's take an Asian example. If you go to Thailand (Thailand is the best example since its the tourism gateway in Asia), majority and I would probably say more than 80% of the tourists there are Europeans. And many are from different ages and budget groups. There are families, young teenage kids (backpackers), couples, groups, etc. This is the market that DOT should be focusing because this market is guaranted to holiday/vacation every year. Traveling/holidaying/vacationing is part of the CULTURE here in Europe (mostly by northern Europeans).

I mean look at Thailand and the south of Europe, it has benefitted from them.

3. CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP - If they want to compete then they should come out with cheap prices, or lets say reasonable, at the very least. Gone are the days that people want to holiday in a 5 star hotel and spend money like they just picked them from the tree. Are people nuts? Don't people understand that foreigners staying in 5 star hotels are ON BUSINESS? If they travel using their own money, they will gladly settle for a 3 star and lower type hotel, even a pension house. But since they are on business, then 5 star hotels are fine, the company is paying for it anyway.

I would be happy to see the faces and the reaction of these DOT officials and their hotel chain of cohorts once they find out how much a 3 day package tour to Paris with a 3 star hotel and breakfast, or a 8 days package beach holiday in Greece or Spain (within EU travel only). I am pretty sure they will have to go back to their drawing board and start taking off the large profits they are asking!

And why is it that other countries in Asia are cheaper than the Philippines? If they want to have a slice of the cake, they better be ready to slash their prices. But,.... maybe they don't want to have that slice.... (?)

4. ENCOURAGE LOCAL ENTEPRENEURSHIP - Especially along the beach coastlines, where locals can put up bars, restos, cafes, ice cream parlors, tiangges, beauty salons, shops, etcetera. The DOT should make a cottage industry out of this by giving loan projects in tandem with banks or other financial institutions. They should not just leave it to the big players, which are mostly foreigners or corporations by the way running the show. If you notice, most owners of small to large establishments along the resorts/beaches/islands are run and owned by foreign people (foreigners who fell in love with the philippines, foreigners married to a pinay, or foreign companies such as mcdonalds and 7-11).

This would be a great chance to truly help the locals and our country and not just patronizing those foreign entities. They get rich, but the country and its people not. Filipinos should learn to be selfish and not just give it away easily. Filipinos should be aggressive in entrepreneurship, even no matter how small it is. I know the government should support this cause since without the support, it will surely be a hard struggle to beat.

.... By the way, I love your idea on the full development of Carbon Market. I myself am a FAN of the place. Everytime I go home to Cebu, I NEVER MISS TO DROP BY AT CARBON. I am crazy over the native stuff, the baskets, the native bags, mats, everything there.... It would be great to transform the place, a showcase of Filipino-Cebuano ingenuity and culture. That would be something to be proud of and to make money of too! Never forget the money thing, haha... thats the bottom line.

[wayuk]

there was a tour last summer on 3 separate weekends which offered packages for a southern exposure (which included an overnight stay at badian), a northern tour (overnight at bantayan) and a camotes adventure... i never went with them, though. the prices for the trips were rather way over the quotations i got from people who have been to those places, and they even stayed longer.

my family went on a round-south cebu trip x3days during the holy week and we spent 5T for a group of 15. my friends & i went to bantayan last may and spent 600/pax for a weekend getaway. camotes i still have to visit.

i have been to most places in cebu. there are still lots of places other than those usually visited which can really lure the 'wanderers'. the potential of the place just hasn't been looked into yet.

[BayouPinoy]

I also like the Carbon idea---passed by the place the last time I was in the area, but didn't have the time to linger.

Personally, Cebu tourism will continue to develop albeit at the current pace (slow, and going nowhere). I think it continues to suffer from bad publicity all around---price gouging, crime-prone areas, persistent traffic problems, etc. The big beach resorts in Mactan and elsewhere are fine for people inside the resorts, but venturing into the metropolitan area is a challenge, even for the seasoned traveller. And as the island's population continues to soar, the space for tourists and other travellers will diminish or will be severely threatened. If the costs are kept reasonable, the sights kept clean, and politicians get serious about crime, tourists will keep coming back and they will tell others about Cebu and what if offers. Now, population is another story. My 5 cents.

[arnoldsa]

right!