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.