[CEBU CITY,
May 6, 2023] – Thousands
of active and aspiring entrepreneurs, along with
top government officials
and tourism professionals, joined Go Negosyo’s
Tourism Summit 2023 last
May 6. The event, which
was organized in partnership with the Department
of Tourism, was held at the
SM Seaside City Cebu.
The massive hall of the
SM’s new development
in the Queen City of the
South became the venue
for lively discussion on the
future of Philippine tourism
following the three years
of disruption brought on by
the pandemic.
Go Negosyo
founder Joey Concepcion
welcomed several key personalities in the tourism industry, led by Department
of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco and Cebu City Gov.
Gwendolyn Garcia. Local
government leaders of top
Philippine tourism sites,
namely Mayor Michael
Rama of Cebu City, Mayor
Sol Matugas of Siargao,
and Mayor Edgardo Arcay
of Panglao, lent their support to the event.
“This is the second time we have held the
Tourism Summit. After the
pandemic hit, the industry
affected both big and small
businesses, and many
jobs were lost. We would
like to help regain that lost
ground and do it as fast as
we can,” said Concepcion.
“You can see it,
you can feel it. The Philippines’s time is now.Tourism is back and we are
on our way to becoming
a tourism powerhouse,”
said DOT Sec. Frasco.
She shared several projects of the DOT, including
the focus on infrastructure
development and facilities
improvement, the development of the Tourist Lifecycle app to help tourists
find local tourism destinations and experiences,
the BisitaBeMyGuest program which incentivizes
ordinary Filipinos to invite
tourist to come to the Philippines, the nationwide
replication of Cebu’s highly successful Suroy Suroy
Sugbo program to incentivize LGUs throughout the
country to develop lesser-known destinations, the
upskilling of tourism frontliners, and the scrapping
of the One Health Pass in
favor of the eArrival Card.
“The power of
tourism to help the lives
of Filipinos is enormous,”
she said. Tourism, she
said, accelerates progress, benefits communities, creates jobs, and
becomes a catalyst for entrepreneurship. In this regard, Frasco emphasized
the importance of empowering MSMEs as she said
they are an important part
of the tourism value chain.
A highlight of
the Tourism Summit 2023
was the Inspiring Tourism
Entrepreneurs Awards,
wherein 20 enterprises in
the tourism industry and
10 travel vloggers/influencers were given recognition for their contribution
to promoting Philippine
tourism.
Throughout the
day-long summit, industry experts, policymakers,
entrepreneurs, social media influencers, and other
stakeholders sharedtheir
insights on the future of
Philippine tourism and its
economic opportunities,
particularly for MSMEs
in the industry and in the
context of the country’s
place in tourism in Southeast Asia.
Discussing how
tourism can uplift lives
in the communities were
ASEANTA President Eddy
Soemawilaga, who joined
Mayors Rama, Matugas
and Arcay in the panel.
Tackling the prospects
of tourism in a post-pandemic world were PAM
Express President Rabbi
Ang, AirAsia CEO Ricky
Isla, Cebu Pacific President Alexander Lao,
Henann Group President Alfonso Chusuey,
PCCI Director for Tourism
Samie Lim, and Philippine
Hotel Owners Association
Executive Director Benito
Bengzon.
Lending their
professional insight into
what the Philippines has to
offer tourists were internationally renowned designer Kenneth Cobonpue,
Amarela Resorts owner
Atty. Doy Nunag, Masungi
Georeserve’s Ann Dumaliang, Wanderland Music
Festival’s John David Uy,
The Chocolate Chamber’s
Raquel Choa, and Hapag
Manila’s Chef John Kevin
Navoa.
Sharing their secrets to tourism success
and resilience were ZambawoodResorts’ Rachel
Fernandez, paragliding
entrepreneur Violet Lucasi, FiestaFavoriites’s Atty.
Jobert Peñaflorida, and
garden resorts pioneer
Sonya Garcia.
The Tourism
Summit also featured online celebrities in a lively
a roundtable on The Power of Storytelling, namely Marco Ho aka Bogart
the Explorer, Kyle “Kulas”
Jennermann, Therine Diquit, Carl Chuidian, Kenneth Ian Chiong, Angelica
Gapit and Herbie Arabelo,
while conservation photographer Gab Mejia gave
an inspirational talk. The
event was enlivened with
a performance from the
Sindaw Philippines Performing Arts Guild.
Selected active
and aspiring entrepreneurs from Cebu and its
neighboring province were
given free entrepreneurship mentoring sessions,
while lucky attendees
went home with raffle prizes.
The Tourism
Summit 2023 was co-presented with the DOT, and
with the support of the
Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry. PR
