The European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Cebu Tourism Committee spearheaded a roundtable discussion together with the various stakeholders from the Tourism Industry and joined by resource speakers from the DOT VII, MARINA 7, DPWH 7, Cebu Provincial Tourism Office, Lapu-Lapu City Tourism Office, and Cebu City Transportation Office.

 The discussion focused on the updates from the abovementioned offices in the over-all promotion of sustainable tourism and maintaining cultural heritage, updates on COVID 2019 and its effects on the Tourism Industry and other Business Sectors and Actions Taken by the PH Government and private sector. By which, Lapu-Lapu City Tourism Office shared their efforts in institutionalizing the Incident Command Plan (ICP). MARINA 7’s has also issued constant advisories since January 23, 2020, and February 11, 2020.  Topics from the previous ECCP Cebu Tourism Committee Meeting such as issues on traffic, marine tourism regulations, and DPWH road projects along Punta Engaño Road to Lapu2x City destinations.

 Mr. Roland Tabunag, Stakeholder Relations of the Cebu Provincial Tourism Office shared its office’s plans to develop island circuit tourism per district to promote community-managed attractions, heritage caravan not only as part of 500 years celebration but also as an ordinance to create a provincial tourism masterplan for Cebu district with Cebu tourism branding, and partnering with DOT 7 to accredit regional and city-based tour guides.

 Engr. Leonila Sinapsap, DPWH VII Chief of Planning Section presented allocations for tourism for the 14 district offices of Central Visayas. She stated that objective for tourism road infrastructure projects is to identify, prioritize, and implement technically correct and politically participative road access leading to tourism destinations as identified in the national tourism development plan (NTDP) 2016-2022

 Lapu-Lapu City Tourism & Promotions Officer Mr. Edward Mendez also shared that the three major priorities of the Lapu-Lapu City Tourism Office’s Strategic Development Plan anchored mostly and tourism, manufacturing, and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) hub.

 Engr. Emmalinda Farador of Cebu City Transportation Office Engineering Division announced that Cebu City approved a partial amount of P500M for the installation of intelligent traffic system with CCTV and fiber optic connectivity.

MARINA VII Regional Director Engr. Marc Anthony Pascua presented 10-year Maritime Industry Development Plan for 2019-2028 as a contribution to the Duterte administration’s socio-economic agenda.  The plan includes upgrading of domestic shipping in support of the nautical highway development, development of shipping services for maritime tourism, development of coastal and inland waterways transport (CIWT) system, strengthening of safety standards of registered fishing vessels, development of a global maritime hub, enhancement of maritime safety in the Philippines, modernization of maritime security in the Philippines, establishment of maritime innovation and knowledge center (MIKC).

Capitalizing on faith tourism as part of DOT 7’s CoVID 19 recovery plan was also shared by DOT Regional Director Shahlimar Hofer Tamano. He told the stakeholders, “we will come up with a strong campaign this summer season through a pilgrimage show this holy week.”  He said, his office has also sought the support of the CBCP through the Archdiocese of Cebu. He also announced the relaunching of PAL’s direct flight from Los Angeles to Cebu City.