IT’S Cebu Business Month, and the Queen City of the South aims to strengthen the country’s tourism industry as it plays host to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Tourism Congress from June 14 to 15 at the Cebu International Convention Center. The event is being organized by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Here’s an excerpt from Irene Sino Cruz’s story for the Philippine Daily Inquirer:
Mila Espina, chairperson of the tourism congress committee, said Cebu was prepared to promote tourism further as it has laid the groundwork for links in the Asian region.
During the congress, local tourism stakeholders and the downstream businesses supporting the industry would learn how to benefit from the growing industry, Espina said during the 888 News Forum held Tuesday at the Marco Polo Plaza.
She said this year’s event (the congress is on its third year) would be different since the chamber invited other sectors such as the academe, the local governments and the small entrepreneurs so that the benefits from tourism industry would trickle down to the community.
Around 50 speakers and panelists will converge in Cebu for this tourism expo. Here’s more information from the press statement:
“We are holding Tour Cebu: CBM Asean Tourism Congress as a follow-through to the highly successful 12th ASEAN Summit, held in Cebu last January,” said Dr. Mila C. Espina, chairman of the CBM Asean Tourism Congress. “In addition, this event is also inspired by the fact that 35 percent of foreign tourist arrivals are captured by Cebu, making the province one of the major — if not the biggest — tourism hubs in the country.”
According to CCCI president Francis Monera, the event aims to promote the Philippines — through Cebu — as a world-class tourism hub. “We are doing this by making sure that the convention and exhibition components of the confab are truly at par with international standards,” Monera said.
For the conference, panel discussions have been lined up on the following topics: facilities marketing, building and distinguishing the Asian experience, marketing Asian places and deregulation of the airline industry; and the role of the media in branding destinations.
“The biggest names in the international tourism industry have confirmed their participation in the panel discussions, including respected media personalities” said CBM chairman Samuel L. Chioson. Leading the list of speakers in media are travel and tourism journalists Shannon Sweeney of CEI; Margie T. Logarta of BusinessTraveller Asia-Pacific; Greg Hutchison of Agence France-Presse; Zenaida Silva of NBC News; Butch Canoy, national president of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP); and Edward Abad, KBP president-Cebu.
The Philippine government will be represented by Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano and Undersecretary Eduardo Jarque as well as Department of Tourism Region 7 Director Patricia Aurora Roa and Col. Francisco Fernando, acting general manager of the Philippine Retirement Authority. They will be joined by representatives from the provincial government, led by Cebu governor Gwen Garcia and Provincial Board member Agnes Magpale.
“We will also have resource persons from industry associations as speakers, moderators or panelists,” added Chioson. “The roster includes Samie Lim, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Marissa Nallana, honorary secretary of the Asian Federation of Convention and Exhibition Organizers, which is based in Singapore; Dexter Deyto, president of the Philippine Association of Convention/Exhibition Organizers and Suppliers, Inc.; and Won-Gyu Hwang, founding member of the East Asia Inter-Regional Tourism Forum.”
“Finally, joining the local stakeholders are representatives from foreign governments and international industry players such as David de Jesus from the Thailand Tourism Board; Nancy Tan, managing director of Ace: Daytons Direct, Singapore; Eddie Kong, general manager of Cathay Pacific; Dr. Wiendu Nuryanti, executive director of Indonesia’s Yogyakarta Tourism Development Board; Kim Gil-Jong, director of Gangwon’s Tourism Marketing Department; and British Consul Moya Jackson.
Themed “Inspiring Cebu: Gateway to Asia,” the CBM Asean Tourism Congress is being organized in collaboration with the Department of Tourism, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Board of Investments.
July 16th, 2007 at 8:54 am
The Asean Cebu Tourism was a good start. I just hope it becomes an annual event as we need to promote Cebu and the rest of the country on its own. There is so many things that can be done to promote tourism this part of the world.
July 3rd, 2007 at 5:22 am
[...] in all, the Cebu ICT 2007 and the two other CBM events, namely the CBM ASEAN Tourism Congress and the Go-Negosyo Forum shared a wealth of substantive and factual [...]
June 8th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
[...] Tales of the Nomad: Cebu gears up for Asean Tourism Congress [...]
June 7th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
[...] Tales of the Nomad: Cebu gears up for Asean Tourism Congress [...]
June 7th, 2007 at 11:23 am
This is great for Cebu. Cebu is better than most cities in the country but still has to improve in comparison to the progressive small cities even in SEA. An area that Cebu needs to focus on is improving on the remaining greeneries, for which it does not have a lot and the remaining ones are not even well maintained. Cebu could start by cleaning up the Reclamation areas and leveling the grounds and mowering them uniformly. Could also use a few trees, flowers and plants for aesthetics. General cleanliness I would say, that also includes the streets, sidewalks, sewers, common grounds, center islands etc. I hope the newly elected local executives could read this.