Lifestyle
CBM 2016 Tourism Forum
(From left) Managing Partner SPICE Coaching International Mr. Eric Waldburger, General Manager of the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) Mr. Andrew Harrison, Talent Developer/mentor/Motivator Mr. Merril Yu
“Though Cebu is one of the smallest in the region in terms of land area, our economy is one of the largest. Part of this is largely due to the tourism industry. Tourism as one of the growth drivers in Cebu economy has been boasting double digit increases in visitor arrival since 2012. It has been expected to continue to grow.” Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Melanie Ng said.
In the last 5 years, tourism in Cebu has increased to 14% with 4.6 million tourists visiting last year. Tourism has helped in bolstering our economy to become the 4th biggest in the Philippines. Due to the fact that tourism has become an economic driver, the Cebu Business Month 2016 Tourism Forum held last June 16 at the Marco Polo hotel was a much needed opportunity to help educate the stakeholders of tourism’s importance and to remind them how far this industry has come.
“While we are happy to note on all the positive developments of all the beautiful things that we can offer, we do not discount the fact that though we have yet a lot of things we need to do. We cannot just rely on our internal strengths to capture a bigger, much bigger slice of the global market. So what can we do to bring Cebu to much even higher levels of tourism development? There has to be more industry, government, and academe linkages established. We have to work together to maximize our market reach and even surpass the goals that we have set for the industry.”
In light of her speech, the CBM Tourism Forum topics focused entirely on tourism, hospitality and harnessing digital technology to enhance the industry. Leaders from the hospitality, logistics and communications industry convened to speak on those subjects.
The idea that experience is encapsulated by brands was tackled by Talent Developer Mr. Merril Yu in his talk “Marketing for Sustained Business Success- Making the Customer Brand Experience a Reality”.
The plans for the upcoming new and renovated Mactan Airport were presented by the General Manager of Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) Mr. Andrew Harrison.
“The Essence of Hospitality” was emphasized by the Managing Partner of SPICE Coaching International Mr. Eric Waldburger.
The art of defining and defending reputations was stressed by Global Communications Executive Mr. Ron Jabal in his talk “Reputation Management in the Age of Disruption.”
“Digital Tourism: Apps, Social and Bots: Harnessing Tech for Tourism” by Journalist and New Media Start-up Co-founder Mr. Max Limpag underlined the need to go digital to catch up with the ever expanding market.
Lastly, there was a presentation on Mega Cebu for Tourism by Entrepreneur and Insurance Broker Mr. Gordon Alan “Dondi” Joseph.
