TACLOBAN CITY—Businessmen in Yolanda-hit Eastern Visayas urge the national government to seriously push its build-back-better programs in devastated areas by reviving tourism through better infrastructure in the region.
“Within the next two to three years we should see the basic infrastructure of our tourist sites to become even better. This is to entice and handle a greater influx of local and international tourists,” said Oliver Cam, point person for trade, industry and information and communication technology of the chamber of commerce and industry in Leyte and the region.
Cam, who also acted a consultant for the Eastern Visayas Business Recovery Center under the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said better support infrastructure should be present to match the massive campaign of the Department of Tourism-Region 8 which is banking on the tourism potential of Eastern Visayas.
“More people worldwide now know exactly where we are and how to get here. Based on what I see, the national government has funded more tourism development projects and programs for the region in the history of Department of Tourism in Eastern Visayas,” Cam said.
Cam however slammed the government for the “very poor pro-active planning of Department of Transportation and Communication in 2014 up to the present in the Tacloban Airport runway rehabilitation.”
The Tacloban City airport is considered the gateway to the region.
“The ongoing runway repairs give way for the scraping and asphalting works of the remaining 300 meters of runway…improving vital airport facilities for the safety of the flying public,” the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said in a statement.
Cam, who has has a hotel/ accommodation business, slammed the effect of the airport repair on the region. “Hotel occupancy rates have actually dropped or decreased by over 30% ever since they re-imposed plane-size limitations back to the turbo-propeller planes last April 14, 2015. We normally have 80-90%+ occupancy during summer season but now we just average around 50-60 percent since the restart of the runway rehabilitation,” Cam said in an online interview.
“In particular we still need more local private sector investments in tourism infrastructure, facilities and programs. Local hotel owners are encouraged to network, develop and offer more competitive tour packages and plans in partnership with local tourist-ready communities, tour operators and the Eastern Visayas’s tourism to continue to build up and sustain the growth of tourism in the region.”
DOT-Region 8 said that as of April 2015, over three million tourists both local and foreign have visited the region from from 2013 to 2014, with the latter year generating more tourists. This has generated over P3.3 billion in revenues.