Cebu’s tourism governance good model for other destinations

INCOMING TOURISM Secretary Christina Frasco said she sees Cebu’s tourism governance as a good model for other destinations in the country.

DOT Secretary Christina Frasco

Frasco, whose mother Gwendolyn Garcia is the governor of Cebu, said coordination among tourism stakeholders and the development of lesser-known destinations are integral parts of Cebu’s model and have bode well to revive their tourism sector.

She said that consensus-building and collaboration should be strong to ensure that sustainable tourism is practiced by local governments. “I believe that the tourism governance that has been strongly established in Cebu could serve as a good model to be applied all over the Philippines as far as due respect and courtesy given to local government units for the destinations within their jurisdiction,” she said.

Frasco said she will bring in a local government perspective to the Department of Tourism, adding “being well versed in the challenges that are faced from the grassroots and on the ground can help our Department of Tourism come up with sustainable, innovative, medium, and long-term solutions to the challenges that our tourism front-liners, tourism stakeholders, and partners continue to have as a result of the difficulties of the pandemic.”

“I also bring with me the experience of being a local chief executive, whose main challenge is to face and try to solve crisis after crisis,” said Frasco, who is mayor of Cebu’s Liloan town and spokeswoman for Vice President-elect Sara Duterte.

Frasco said she believes investing heavily in tourism infrastructure and introducing technology and innovation would help speed up the sector's recovery. She said President-elect Bongbong Marcos also wants to improve the overall tourist experience to make it convenient for foreigners to visit the country. (Joyce Ann Rocamora)