Tourism: Local tax breaks must be considered

In mid-December last year, Department of Tourism (DOT-7) regional director Shalimar Tamano reported that, “China Southern Airlines is set to launch a direct flight between Cebu and Guangzhou by January 2019.”

Remember, this is in addition to the many daily flights already mounted by several Chinese-owned airlines between Cebu and the key cities in mainland China. To think that non-China-based airlines, like Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific and AirAsia, have also mounted flights, surely, there will be more flights in the future and more tourists too.

Moreover, knowing fully well that GMR-Megawide invested several billions in the new terminal, it will surely market the facility to more airlines. Therefore, that should mean more destinations and more diverse nationalities coming into the country as tourists. Again, for tourism, this is good. The question is, with this expected volume are we ready to comfortably accommodate them and make sure they enjoy?

As usual, Cebu might offer its long stretches of beaches and whale watching as if we are the only island that has them.  While it’s noteworthy, we must not forget that Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand have longer, cleaner and more serene beaches too. Yet, despite their natural gifts, they’ve developed theme parks, amusement parks and other places of interest.

What about us in Cebu? How we developed places of interests? If there is one, probably, it should be the “Kasadya sa SRP”. Substandard this maybe and may bring joy seasonally, Cebuanos are patronizing it. If we try to ponder a bit, we can only surmise that it is not because it is spectacular, since it isn’t and will never be.  Cebuanos are enjoying “Kasadya sa SRP” because of the lack of amusement parks in Cebu.

From what we’ve observed, amusement parks or carnival rides have, obviously, very strong domestic market. Having such strong domestic support, this family-oriented fun will always have a place in the tourism industry. So that, replicating such in Cebu on a more sustainable basis could be the greatest fun of all. The main concern though that should be addressed is safety.

Apart from “Kasadya”, so far, “Snow World Cebu” situated at Minglanilla is giving a good impression and a sizeable contribution to Cebu’s tourism initiative. Surely, this family-oriented theme park will attract more domestic tourists or even foreign ones, who, just like us, aren’t experiencing winter season.

`Undeniably, we’ve promoted our tourism industry to the hilt. For one, the country’s tourism promotion is at its best. On a sustained basis, the government promotes the country’s tourism investment potentials and places of interest for opportunity-seeking business travelers and leisure lovers, respectively. Its hype has always been great and undoubtedly expensive. In Cebu, however, the question is, what are we promoting? Sinulog? Then, the truth is, it gives us just a week of bounty. Considering that a year has fifty two weeks, it simply means, a week of abundance and fifty one weeks of scarcity.

Clearly, therefore, an annual event like Sinulog is not enough. So that some countries that are solely dependent on festival-related tourism had to do other things. For sustainability reasons, apart from developing theme parks, these countries have organized trade expos in between their festivals to have constant influx of opportunity-seeking travelers and leisure lovers alike.

Why can’t we do the same through private sector initiatives by giving them local tax breaks or incentives? The LGUs, on the other hand, must make sure that these places of interest are reachable by providing the necessary infrastructure.  Then, jointly, all tourism players (LGUs included) must make a collective effort in promoting the island. The tour and travel operators, businessmen as they are, will certainly package tours if the products are saleable and reachable.

So that, through initiatives like these, tourism in Cebu will be a daily affair, not a yearly event.