Countries open for PH, this year’s highlights for Cebu Travel Catalogue International

MINERVA BC NEWMAN

CEBU CITY – The Cebu Tours and Travel Association (CTTA) brings back this year the Cebu Travel Catalogue International (CTCI) 2022, a three-day open travel exhibit on June 10-12, at the Ayala Center Cebu highlighting local and international destinations that are open for the Philippines with ease of travel protocols and restrictions with the theme, "Explore the World Again!"

Angelita Dy, CTCI 2022 chair and CTTA vice president, in a press launch on May 30 that the CTCI 2022 event this year is in collaboration with the CTTA, Department of Tourism (DOT-7), Cebu City Tourism Council (CCTC), Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), tour operators, airlines and other tours/travel stakeholders in Cebu and other provinces in Central Visayas and with special participation of the Cebu Tour Operation Specialists (CATOS).

“We have more than 60 exhibitors and partners joining the travel catalogue and what’s in store are local and international destinations that are now more open to our country, those whose travel restrictions are easing out,” Dy said.

CATOS president, Alice Quiblatin revealed that three big organizations—DOT-7, CCCI and CCTC are event partners that push to showcase new tourism sites, farm/cooking tourism, faith tourism in all provinces in the region, including religious pilgrimage and more activities in the favored adventure tourism.

The CCTC is pushing for four new images of urban tourism such as highland/garden, coastal, vibrant activity tourism, heritage/culture, the new tourism circuits for Cebu City, Quiblatin added.

“The tourism market is now widening in terms of traveling. Travelers are now having the big demand and the prospects of travel locally and internationally could propel the country’s tourism economy,” Quiblatin noted.

CTTA secretary Sheila Colmenares bared that the event will offer exceptional deals on airfare and tour packages to various destinations. Outbound tour operators are highlighting places that have opened or are slowly reopening their doors to Filipinos, such as Turkey, many parts of Europe, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, US, South Korea, and Japan.

According to Dy, the CTCI 2022 was not that hard to organized because most of the exhibitors confirmed and were already in place in the previous CTCI, although there are some minor challenges like the fluidity and ever-changing travel protocols and use of digital technology in travel these days.

There is such thing as revenge travel, Quiblatin noted, where peoples all over the world are now itching to travel, CTCI 2022 is taking advantage of that situation.

The event’s program includes setting up of booths, salon talks, business-to-business presentation and meetup sessions among industry stakeholders, a mini concert, coffee table discussion on tourism by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, travel auction, and raffle draws, Dy added.

Dy bared that the organizers prepared exciting activities throughout the three-day travel show, starting with opening ceremonies on the first day as well as talk shows featuring farm, culinary, and faith tourism to be hosted by the DOT-7.

 Promising developments

While it is still an unstable situation for the tourism industry because of COVID-19, CTTA Public Relations Officer Cookie Chan said there are promising developments though.  She cited Turkey as an example, which has done away with almost all restrictions for travelers.

“Although no one can really be sure what the result of this decision will be down the road, Turkey is right now enjoying huge gains in its tourism industry,” Chan said.

An illness like COVID-19 will probably be around for a long time but the world is learning to live with it through vaccinations and health protocols and after more than two years of restrictions in travel, it was a good sign that Cebu City, DOT7, and CCCI have decided to become partners of CTCI 2022, Queblatin noted.

These early, local tourism stakeholders are already actively pushing for highland, coastal, and heritage tourism. “They have started with tours highlighting the flower gardens in the Cebu City highlands and coastline area particularly with the opening of the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway, NUSTAR, and new food destinations in Il Corso,” Quiblatin said.