US consul appeals to Cebu City Hall, building owners, tourism sector
Cebu could be a “beautiful city” if not for the state of disorder of traffic, garbage and shabby buildings especially in its historic downtown area.
This observation by US Consul John Domingo during a Tourism Forum on Cebu Branding last Friday, came with an appeal for City Hall to be more assertive in putting up public toilets and getting building owners to “clean up” their frontage and repair their structures.
As a Cebu resident for 35 years, Domingo spoke candidly about missed opportunities for the city, which he noted hosts the nation’s oldest street of Colon, the oldest Spanish fort in Fort San Pedro, and the oldest church in the Sto. Niño basilica.
¨Cebu can be a magnet for tourism. We can get tourists to come to downtown Cebu and not just to the beaches and the outer parts , by improving the state the city is in,¨ he said.
¨The city can do this.”
Domingo was invited as part of a panel of reactors that included philanthropist Amparito Lhuillier, businessman Edwin Ortiz, former tourism regional director Dawnie Roa, and advertising-marketing practitioner Lilu Aliño.
Tourism stakeholders are in the midst of a multi-sectoral effort to identify the unique qualities of Cebu in order to define a brand, complete with imagery and a slogan, to use as marketing tool for the entire island.
In Friday’s discussion, Tetta Baad, chairperson of the Cebu City Tourism Commission, pointed out that what stands out in the minds of foreign travelers are the “friendliness” of Cebuanos, the island’s beaches, and natural scenery based on the 2013 Conde Nast Traveler magazines Reader’s Choice survey.
GETTING WORSE
Domingo said he considered himself a “Cebuano by heart” and was pained to see how “horrible traffic conditions.. have gotten worse” over the years.
As consul officer, he said, he deals with 2,000 to 3,000 Americans who visit a year, and their common feedback about Cebu is that “no. 1, the beaches are great” and the people are friendly.
The place is rich in history, especially the downtown area, he said, where he’d love to take visitors on a walking tour of the Sto. Niño basilica, Colone Street, Magellan’s Cross, and other sights.
But with the state of disorder in traffic, potholes, visible trash dumps, dilapidated buildings downtown and the stench of urine, Domingo said, “it’s dirty, an ugly city and an embarrassment to the people. I hate to say it.”
“We have vendors who fill the sidewalks so people can´t use them, we have trash littered everywhere, and people just urinate on walls by the streets,¨ he said.
¨Some people who come to my office comment on the smell and wonder if Cebu has public toilets.”
Domingo said he has given suggestions before to Cebu city officials on how to improve the situation “without any cost to the city government.”
If City Hall could convince building owners downtown to “clean up their frontage”, paint their structures, undertake necessary repairs, the area would be worth bringing visitors to experience the place, he said, the way a seedy section of San
Francisco was revitalized into a tourism destination by marshaling the civic spirit of the private sector.
(Domingo’s suggestion echoes Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama’s pet project for the Revitalization of Colon by tapping downtown businessmen to volunteer, efforts which have had limited success.)
If private building owners don’t move, said the US consul, City Hall could directly undertake the repairs and charge the cost to them — or else “padlock” the place for violation of policies on sanitation and building standards.
Unless these steps are taken, present conditions can discourage people from going to Cebu and seeing what Cebu has to offer.
Something must be done about this, he said.
¨We have to take vendors off of the streets, fill the potholes, fix the sidewalks, the old houses and install public toilets in all street corners if we have to,¨ said Domingo.
FIX THE PRODUCT
Dawnie Roa, consultant of Vice Gov. Agnes Mapgale and former regional tourism director, said “It will take time to fix the product.”
She asked what stakeholders can do “right now” which is to agree on a Cebu brand as a marketing tool.
Amparito Lhuillier, whose family has interests in a successful pawnshop chain, restaurants, and other enterprises, said she has lived 51 years in Cebu, and would continue her efforts to fund scholarships for poor but deserving children, about 1,500 to date.
Lilu Aliño said her group’s effort to mount the 4th year of a Cebu international film festival, is hoping Cebu can be a “mini-Cannes”, a city on the French Riviera which comes alive and welcomes 200,000 visitors for its annual celebrity-studded film festival.
Edwin Ortiz, who sits in the Tourism Promotion Board, said Cebu’s value is that it has “everything in an island city”, a relaxed lifestyle with access to the beach and the mountains./With Eileen G. Mangubat