Luxury resort pleas anew for proper docking areas

CEBU, Philippines — Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa is initiating a discussion with the new local government leaders in Cebu City to provide a docking area for water taxis coming from Mactan Island.

The resort’s general manager Renè Egle said in an interview that the docking area located in front of Il Corso mall at the South Road Properties is a good facility that can accommodate water taxis coming from the island to avoid dense traffic on land.

The docking facility at SRP was used by a private company, which was initially offered by Air Juan seaplane as seaplane terminal.

The five-star resort also plans to talk to other resort properties along Punta Engaño like Movenpick to share the transportation service to guests going to the city.

“We have the boat,” Egle said but the problem right now is the availability of good docking area.

Shangri-La Mactan started to discuss this matter with the past officials, but the negotiation was left hanging until the change of leadership.

This time, Egle hopes that the new LGU leaders will help the resort properties in Mactan in a bid to spare the tourists from the worsening traffic problem by introducing the water taxi service to and from the island.

Meanwhile, the Department of Tourism (DOT-7) is now in talks with the Cebu Ports Authority (CPA) for the development of Cebu’s intra-province sea transportation access.

DOT-7 regional director Shalimar H. Tamano said that his office has already presented its proposal for development of sea-transport option as a way of avoiding traffic.

Aside from CPA, Tamano is also coordinating closely with the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) and the Department of Transportation (DOTr).

Tamano emphasized that it is important to provide utmost convenience especially to tourists and sea transport is one of the easiest solutions.

At present, Shangri-La Mactan is operating a water taxi service for its guests coming from the airport using the docking area in Lapu-Lapu City (near Marina Mall) to ferry guests going to the resort and vice versa. (FREEMAN)