AFFORDABLE tour packages that will bring in more domestic tourists during the Lenten season will soon be launched by the Cebu Province.
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia announced Friday, March 5, 2021, that pre-Holy Week and Holy Week tour packages patterned after the Suroy-Suroy Sugbo were being prepared by the tourism sector.
Garcia met with Department of Tourism Regional Director Shalimar Tamano as well as members of the Cebu Alliance of Tour Operation Specialists and Cebu Tours and Travel Association on March 3 to discuss these planned packages.
The two groups are coordinating with the Cebu Provincial Tourism Office in coming up with the tour packages.
Garcia said each tour package will include airfare, accommodation for three days and two nights, tour guides, food and local transport.
“We now have to consider other markets. We should now open up for domestic tourism,” she said.
“We need to do more and open up to more markets. We will open Cebu to other regions, especially the National Capital Region,” she added.
She noted that economic activities resume when guests check into hotels and resorts.
“There’s life reemerging in the Province and, as we opened tourism last August, we saw that most of the Cebu City residents would go out on weekends to check into our hotels but during the week, occupancy drops because people have to go to work,” she said.
Garcia pioneered the removal of the swab test requirement from domestic tourists through her Executive Order No. 12.
Inbound tourists, however, are still required to present a medical clearance and pass screening for Covid-19 symptoms at the point of origin. They must also present confirmed room reservations.
The Provincial Government is still preparing the guidelines for the enforcement of minimum public health standards in the towns to minimize transmission of any disease. / (ANV)