White sand beaches in Sta Fe Bantayan Island.(CDN PHOTO/TD)
WHILE Boracay has reopened its beaches for local and foreign tourists last week, Cebu province’s drive to improve its own beach destinations is keeping in progress.
Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, who chairs the Committee on Tourism, said they continue to send to Oslob the necessary assistance the town needs to make its tourism industry “sustainable.”
The Capitol, Magpale said, has been meeting tourism stakeholders in Oslob to address issues on sanitation and amenities and set the viable number of daily tourism arrivals in the town’s beaches, especially in the whale shark watching sites.
A centralized reservation scheme was identified early last month as a means to control the number of tourists who want to interact with the town’s famous whale sharks from an average of 1,000 daily to just 800.
Cebu is among those which are seen to have benefited from the six-month closure of Boracay, in terms of tourist arrivals.
“According to Sec. [Bernadette Romulo] Puyat, they really thought the tourist arrival in the entire country would drop with Boracay’s closure but it did not. In fact, it increased so they thought that the tourists came to Cebu and Bohol,” Magpale said.
The vice governor added that she is looking forward to see the effect of the reopening of Boracay to the tourism industry of the province.
“The next data should be on that, nikunhod ba ang Bohol og Cebu after the reopening of Boracay? But it’s too early to tell,” Magpale said.
“Now, the tourists already know that there is more to see in the Philippines than just Boracay,” she added.