The Department of Tourism’s latest ads inviting tourists to the Philippines feature were run on CNN last week. The ad featured Bohol and its 1,776 hills famously called the Chocolate Hills. The ad is also on Youtube and was widely shared by netizens.
Behold Bohol is the latest tag line in promoting Bohol. The province was featured in an ad run on CNN last week.
Stakeholders of the Bohol tourism industry and the government sector are on an all out effort to bring back the number of tourists the province enjoyed prior to the decline of tourists after two major natural disasters last year. The whole country wants to attract at least 10 million by 2016. As of August 2014, the country had 3.2 million foreign tourists.
In the DOT’s Visit Philippines 2015 campaign, there are five focus areas for tourism: business meetings; history and culture; lifestyle and entertainment; music and the arts; sports, adventure, and eco-tourism. Bohol tourism destinations can be categorized into most, if not all, of these areas.
A new Facebook Page called “Behold Bohol” was recently created to help disseminate information about the new travel destinations of the province.
To support the expected increase in volume of tourists, the Tagbilaran City Airport needs to accommodate more flights. Due to safety procedures, there can only be one airplane allowed on the airport at atny given time. Since this was implemented in 2012, the number of flights have been limited. The solution discussed in various forums with the Bohol governor Gov. Edgar M. Chatto is the apron at the airport which can be used as the space where multiple aircrafts can be accommodated to allow more flights into Bohol. Perhaps evening flight facilities should also be suggested to allow even more flights.
Repairs to the Tagbilaran Seaport has been underway several months back and should soon make traveling safer, more convenient and more comfortable. When repairs are completed, the seaport terminal should be able to accommodate more travelers than what it can now in the temporary terminal structure.
The Bohol tourism industry players are eager to serve a much higher volume of tourists in the coming months. With tourism as one of the major sources of jobs and revenue for the province, the government and private sector should extend all effort to exceed past numbers of tourist arrivals.
