Boljoon eyes tourism Infra growth

To Attract Investors: Boljoon eyes tourism infra growth
January 30, 2008
By Rhia de Pablo
Business Section, The Freeman,
Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Blessed with a rich cultural background, the town of Boljoon, in the Southern part of Cebu, is looking at plans of improving its tourism infrastructure to better attract domestic and foreign tourists, especially potential investors.
In an interview with Boljoon Municipal Mayor Deogenes R. Derama, he pointed out that as a fifth class municipality, Boljoon is eyeing for tourism and infrastructure developments in the area as a potential key to help alleviate the living condition of their people.
Annually, Boljoon receives P25 million of IRA, and most of its constituents’ basic source of living is through fishing and farming. The town is located at the Southern part of Cebu and is bounded by the town of Alcoy in the North, Oslob in the South, Malabuyoc in the west and by Bohol Strait in the east. It is composed of six coastal and five upland barangays.
Derama said that they are at the moment qualified to be categorized as a fourth class municipality and sooner they will be applying to become one.
Aside from its rich cultural heritage having been declared by the National Museum in 2001 as a National Cultural Treasure and conferred by the National Historical Institute as a National Landmark in 1999, Boljoon also boasts of having pristine beaches which is being eyed by foreign investors.
Derama said that recently Korean and American firms have been negotiating to acquire beach properties in the town while some have eyed their mountain areas as retirement settlements for the growing foreign retiree market in the region.
Already on his third and last term, Derama is bent on pursuing local projects that can alleviate the living condition of his constituents. Recently, he had employed the expertise of a shoe manufacturer from Carcar City to train Boljo-anons from its 11 barangays with aims of providing livelihood opportunities for these people.
But Derama is very much hopeful that Boljoon can also capture a huge segment of the growing tourism industry in Cebu and be known as one of the top tourism destination in the South.
With this aim in mind, Derama have thought of ways to promote Boljoon’s tourism by proposing a resolution that will implement that all new houses to be built will utilize uniform construction materials. These materials are bricks, which were used in olden times to build houses. In this way, Derama is eyeing prospects of becoming the next Vigan or Las Piñas, which has been known internationally as heritage towns.
Through the town’s own efforts and initiative, several barangays have been making hand-made bricks which are now being utilized for the reconstruction and renovation of their centuries old Church, that have brought national prestige to Boljoon putting the town in the country’s historical map.
But tourism development according to Derama is one of the major steps they consider in uplifting the living conditions of their people and the economic level of Boljoon because this way they can attract more investors that can provide more livelihood opportunities for their people.
“Location-wise, Boljoon is very scenic although it is topographically a small town compared to other local destinations here in Cebu. But we have what it takes to become Cebu’s top tourism destination with our rich cultural heritage,” stressed Derama.
As offshoot of the aggressive tourism promotional efforts of the national, provincial and the local government units, Boljoon have received quite a number of foreign and domestic guests for last year.
This year, they are eyeing more increase in tourism arrivals especially that basic elements like transportation have been well-provided as buses and other mode of transportations have been increased and also basic tourism infrastructures like hotels and resort operations that are of international quality have been starting to increase that can accommodate the growing demand of accommodation in the area.

Bluewater to operate new resort in Panglao

Bluewater to operate new resort in Panglao
by: Rhia de Pablo
Saturday, February 9, 2008
The Freeman

Eyeing so much growth potential in the tourism industry of Central Visayas especially emerging key provinces Cebu and Bohol, resort operator Bluewater will be intensifying its operation through opening a new upscale resort at the Panglao Island and starting renovation works for their existing resorts in Mactan and Sumilon Islands.
Panglao Bluewater Beach Resort will start construction in the middle of this year as necessary permits from DENR, and other concerned agencies are still being acquired by the management, announced Maribago Bluewater General Manager Rhyz O. Buac in an interview.
The Panglao property is a 5.5 hectares lot which will accommodate 200 luxurious rooms following the same Filipino concept of the existing Bluewater resorts here in Cebu.
“We want our guests to feel the Filipino way of accommodation so we will be using native materials that will revolve around a Filipino theme,” said Buac.
Buac also discussed that the property in Panglao was bought last year and they are looking at procuring all necessary documents in six months time before they start construction.
As for their existing resort in the province, Buac revealed that this year they will also be renovating some rooms and amenities of Maribago while they will put up 12 additional rooms in Sumilon.
Maribago Bluewater in Mactan is considerably one of the first high-end resorts in the area and has started operation way back 1989 surviving several economic and political struggles. From 32 rooms, it now has expanded to accommodate 153 rooms, 50 of which are part of their Amuma wing where their authentic Filipino luxurious Amuma Spa is located.
“We will adopt a newer look for our rooms. We are undergoing this renovation as a strategy to cope up with the tougher competition,” said Buac.
But Buac discussed that they will still be preserving the Filipino concept for their accommodation and not compete with high-rise hotels around the area.
As for their 24-hectare Sumilon Bluewater Island Resort, Buac said that they will be adding four more rooms to its existing 12-room upscale accommodation before they hit the 36-room target.
“We are slowly getting on with the construction in Sumilon since materials are hard to transport in the island but we will be starting with the construction this May,” announced Buac.
With the influx of more resort industry investors and the intensified competition in this sector, Bluewater is optimistic to be able to maintain their client-base despite the fact that they are not an international resort chain unlike most of their competitors.
“It is hard to compete head-on with international hotels around the area but if we maintain our concept and focus on our own market base we will surely get through,” said Buac.
Bluewater operates under the umbrella of the Almont Hotels Inc. Group which has managing arms in the resort and hotel industry.
Bluewater group operates the company’s resort businesses composed of Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort in Mactan and Sumilon Bluewater Island Resort in Oslob while the Almont Group operates the four hotels in Mindanao located in Surigao and Butuan City.

Business news

Aerial tours seen to boost tourism
By Rhia de Pablo
Monday, February 11, 2008
Thr Freeman

Answering the call made by Department of Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano on providing an alternative and wider array of tourism activities that will bolster the promotion of Cebu’s tourism, a private company has eyed to intensify the marketing of their aerial tours that will cater both to domestic and international tourists.
Optimistic with the huge potential of tapping the influx of both foreign and local tourists in Cebu, Aviatour, a full-service fixed base operator (FBO) in the general aviation industry that operates in the country’s central and southern islands is bent on intensifying the promotion of their sightseeing aerial tours.
“Tourists usually doesn’t have that much time to see all the beautiful sights in the country because of their limited stay, so we will do this kind of island hopping on the air to provide fresh prospective for the tourism industry,” said Aviatour executive vice-president for global sales and marketing Kenneth Roy Madrid in an exclusive interview with The Freeman.
Madrid discussed that the potential of operating aerial tours in a larger scale to better promote the tourism industry of the country and to generate an increase for our tourist arrivals has not yet been fully utilized here in Cebu.
“This activity is not yet being done in large scale so we are very positive and excited with it as we believe that it is still under- tapped. If we market this to even only a portion of 10% from Cebu’s total tourist arrivals we can capture a very big market,” said Madrid.
By targeting tourists coming from different Asian countries suck as Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong; Aviatour is keen on contributing a positive growth to the local economy as they will be primarily be focusing on providing tours along Cebu and its neighboring islands like Bohol.
“This is our way of doing our part in the promotion of tourism and making tourists see how beautiful the Philippines really is,” he added
Seeing a huge potential to gain better profit margins with this segment, Aviatour decided to expand it business in terms of breadth by intensifying on their sightseeing tour packages after they have gained a strong hold in their flight school operation in the previous years.
Right now, Aviatour is in close negotiation with various tour operators to include aerial sightseeing activities in the itinerary of their packaged tours.
Confident about the big opportunity ahead of them, Madrid pointed out that the “tourism industry here in Cebu is booming so there is a very big potential for this segment and since there is not yet much competition we can easily dominate in this area with our expertise, equipments and resources,” said Madrid.
Primary route and destination for the aerial tours include the Olango channel, the coastlines of Mactan Island and its nearby islands which will take about 30 minutes and will pass by famous hotel resorts of the Mactan Island then to the small islands of Hilutungan, Nalusuan, Olango, Cabul-an & Cuamen. Then another tour offering is the 45-minute aerial tour of the world famous Chocolate Hills.
When their aggressive promotion of their aerial tour packages kicks off this March, Madrid projects to gain a range of about P1 million to P3 million monthly income.
“The opportunity is there for us to take so we decided to take it. This is going to be big and we intend to be the number one player to dominate this segment,” stressed Madrid.
Aviatour has been in operation here in Cebu for almost three years now and aside from its Mactan base, they also hold offices in Manila and in the state of Texas in the United States.