Cebu gubernatorial candidate Joseph “Ace” Durano tried rock climbing in Barangay Cantabaco in Toledo City during the weekend. | Contributed photo
MANDAUE CITY, Cebu — Former tourism Secretary Joseph “Ace” Durano said Cebu would need new tourism activities especially now that the province had been reopened to foreign tourists.
“We need to go beyond what we usually offer tourists because some of them are looking for adventure,” he said in a statement.
Durano, the Partido Pilipino sa Pagbabago-Bakud gubernatorial candidate, said he would push for the creation of more adventure tourism activities here if he would win in the May elections.
He himself tried rock climbing in Barangay Cantabaco in Toledo City on Sunday, March 27, and found his latest adventure very challenging.
Although rock climbing was very “exhilarating,” he would recommend this to the other adventure seekers, he said.
“We have a lot of adventure tourism sites for rock climbing or caves that we can develop,” he said.
“This is the type of of tourism activity that we should really develop here in Cebu,” he added.
Durano said tourists would no longer just come here to rest and enjoy Cebu’s white sand beaches. Many now come to also try the adventure tourism destinations here.
Former Tourism Sec. Ace Durano is pushing for the development of more adventure tourism activities in Cebu. | Contributed photo
With this, Durano said, there would be a need to discover and support new industry players as a means to further boost the local tourism industry.
He also hopes to implement some of the programs which he started when he was Secretary of the Department of Tourism from 2004 to 2010 if he wins in the May elections.
Under his leadership, DOT managed to increase the number of tourists arrivals in the country by 49.31 percent, from 2.1 million in 2004 to 3.2 million in 2010.
Tourist spendings also increased from $1.9 billion in 2004 to $2.49 billion in 2010.
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