I will not make criticisms to the initiatives made by the Tourism Council and the Provincial Tourism Office of Negros Oriental. I will just present here some comparisons on what Bohol and Negros Oriental did for making an effective action in promoting their different tourist spots. I hope this presentation will help us to understand our participation in making our province more aggressive in developing our natural and man-made tourist attractions.
Bohol and Negros Oriental are provinces in the same Region. Both provinces are under Region 7 – Central Visayas. Both provinces have something to show in terms of beautiful tourist attractions. Bohol has the chocolate hills, tarsiers, nice beaches, caves and waterfalls. Negros Oriental has caves, beautiful beaches, waterfalls, lakes, university town, and top dive sites. Both are full of resources to show to domestic and foreign tourists. But why is it that Bohol is more successful and developed in terms of their tourism industry compare to Negros Oriental?
The reason why Bohol is more successful with their tourism initiatives adhere towards the involvement of the whole sectors in the plan. Bohol adopted the concept, “Tourism is everybody’s business”. They made awareness what they have starting from the ordinary people up to the right authorities who push tourism industry as the primary source of generating their revenue. They created an environment that the people, government, and private sectors should be focused. They are involved in promoting Bohol. This is the reason why their tourism industry booms.
Experts said that Negros Oriental has a lot of potential tourist attractions and in fact some are already famous. But the problem is the proper coordination of the stakeholders. Some people are not aware of what we have in Negros Oriental and they don’t care about it. Although there are already initiatives being drawn, but there is a problem of implementation and commitment of the projects. The structure is not really clear to everybody. These problems cause a sluggish promotion of Negros Oriental’s tourism industry. These problems have been addressed during several meetings with the SMED Council of Negros Oriental but there are still unanswered questions.
For the province to successfully improve the tourism industry, I think there should be proper coordination of every sector involved in this industry. I remember an owner of a travel agency had a problem with the rainbow plate for their transportation making problems on their services offered to travelers and tourists. I hope this is already addressed. Aside from promoting the tourist spots we have here in the province, the tourism office will look first on the development of the sites, the transportation, accommodation and people within the province will be informed of what we have. If possible people will be involved in planning through their representatives. I commend that the Provincial Government of Negros Oriental has already laid budget for the development of the tourism spots in the province. This is an indication that the provincial government is serious with the improvement of out tourism industry. I hope the people involved here will work their part and serious with what they are doing..
For everybody, we have to help our province. Don’t just be blind, deaf or mute about our province. Be involved. We will do our part as citizen of this province. The government can’t do everything for us. We have to do our share. Everything will be successful if everybody will be involved and make initiatives to promote Negros Oriental. We have a lot to offer. We have plenty of potential attractions that other provinces don’t have. Let’s make tourism as everybody’s business and I’m sure we will be successful for what we are aspiring of. This is for all of us Negrenses. This is our pride.
PDIS