‘Power Up Tourism’ of CCCI

It was tourism jubilee for Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) as it held its Tourism Congress, Tourism Night, and P.E.O.P.L.E Success Stories: Arts and Culture Talento Cebuano, for the Cebu Business Month, over the weekend.
The Tourism Congress was packed with distinguished guests last June 21 at the Marco Polo Plaza. Among those who were seated were speakers from the academe, the marketing and branding industry, the government, media, and the hotels, resorts and airline industry.

The first keynote speaker was Assistant Secretary Benito Bengzon Jr. of the Department of Tourism (DOT) who talked about DOT’s tourism campaign “It’s More Fun in the Philippines.” Following him was the chief operating officer of Lexis Branding, a branding strategist company based in Singapore, Jacqueline Thng, who tackled on strategies on branding for tourism of a place like Cebu and Philippines in general. Salient points included to need to utilize a ‘story’ in branding a product as stories are heart-felt and have high proof of retention to people which can deliver the name or ‘brand’ recall, thus attracting more influx of tourists, and to find an object that can serve as an ‘icon’ of the place. According to Thng, this can be a product or a person that can directly identify, or speak about the place. She cited that for Cebu, for example, it can be the famous ‘lechon’ or the whole place itself since the Cebu is iconic itself already.

Vice Governor Agnes Magpale gave the keynote speech while Governor Elect Hilario Davide III was the luncheon speaker and gave his tourism plans for Cebu province.

The discussion in the morning was ended by a well-participated audience interaction with the speaker. In the afternoon, sessions on Tourism Marketing in Different Destinations and Sharing of Success Stories by airline, hotels and resorts executives, succeeded. An interaction with CCCI Honorary Ambassadress of Goodwill ABS-CBN/ANC’s Karen Davila also transpired. Participants have been participative in addressing their concerns and expressing their comments on tourism.

Cebu Business Month 2013 Tourism Chair Edwin Ortiz said that they have listed resolutions drawn out from the congress this year and CCCI tourism committee, as an advocacy of CCCI, forwards these resolutions to the government unit involved for study and implementation.

Ortiz said that the clamor expressed to widen and add more airports in the Philippines, and the success stories shared by the different tourism enterprises represented, were two remarkable things he noted in tourism congress this year.

“We’re listing down a couple (of resolutions),” Ortiz said.

Tourism Night awardee Dr. “Yong” Larrazabal III with family and friends (Photo by Gabriel Gealogo, USC-CAFA Intern)

Following the day’s activity was the Tourism Night where awards and citations were given to certain people and organization that have widely raised awareness of tourism in Cebu through the activities they initiated. They are Atty. Anastacio Muntuerto for his exemplary leadership as a president of CCCI from 1998-1999; conceptualization of the Grand Chamber Awards and active involvement in CBM’s Tourism Congress, specifically on advocacies on Tourism and related area. The Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI) was also awarded for its Paseo and Gabii sa Kabilin projects, which promotes cultural heritage arts in Cebu. Cebu Doctor’s Hospital and University’s Dr. Potenciano “Yong” Larrazabal III was also recognized for organizing Sports and Medical Tourism through his Run for Sight Foundation.

The Tourism Night also provided entertainment to the guests with cultural and performing arts presentations by local talents. Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and the Miss Cebu Court of Beauties and Miss Tourism International graced the event.

The Tourism Congress and Night were then followed by the 4th P.E.O.P.L.E (People Enhancing Opportunity Propelling Leadership Excellence) Success Stories: Arts and Culture Talento Cebuano on June 22 at the Ayala Activity Center. Five Cebuano awardees with exemplary achievements in promoting Cebuano arts and culture were recognized. They are Marilyn Chua of Kusina ni Nasing, the Ng Family for the initiatives in promoting music and culture to accelerate tourism in Cebu, Gerlie Las Pinas for her exemplary musical talents through Cebuano song, Monette Alino and Delia Villacastin for their education and civic-humanitarian involvements.

P.E.O.P.L.E Arts and Culture Talento Cebuano is a recognition initiative by CCCI Tourism Committee during the Cebu Business Month, that targets to recognize the unnoticed and unknown Cebuanos who have initiated endeavors that create awareness on Culture, arts, education, music and other activities that impacted the community.

Recognized P.E.O.P.L.E with CCCI BOT and Officers (Photo by Gabriel Gealogo, USC-CAFA Intern)

” It’s the common place, the unknown and unpopular, coming from all walks of life. So we call it P.E.O.P.L.E because I would say that in any place, people are the main resources. They are the agents of change,” said CCCI Tourism Chair Dr. Milagros Espina.

“I believe that aside from having people which is highly entrepreneurial, we know that the best actors and actresses and singers in the Philippines, even globally, come from Cebu. In arts and cultures, Cebu is really something. It’s just that we lack the venue like a museum or an ongoing program. So we really like to showcase the Cebuano talents,” Espina added.

Talking about Cebuano arts and culture, the afternoon program was enlivened by performances from the different schools, and guest artist Ogie Alcasid entertained the audience also.