The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry is now looking for ways to make the cities of Bacolod and Iloilo to be among the tourism gateways of the country as part of their target to attract 120 million foreign and domestic tourists in the next 10 years. Samie Lim, PCCI director of the Tourism and Franchising Committee, said that, aside from Bacolod’s hosting of the PCCI’s Visayas Business Conference this week, they are also looking at places in the city and other areas in Negros Occidental to find ways on promoting tourism. “Tourists should not just go to Manila but could go directly to places in the Visayas and Mindanao, and promote them as basic gateways”, he said in an interview. He was referring to the PCCI’s “InvesTour Goals” initiative that aims to attract 20 million foreign and 100 million domestic tourists in the next 10 years that could generate a total of US$150 billion in tourism income. Lim said this is the second year that PCCI has implemented this kind of program in line with its initiative to increase foreign tourist arrivals from 2 million to 5 million 12 years ago. He was one of the speakers on the second day of the ongoing Visayas Business Conference at L’Fisher Hotel in Bacolod City, that kicked off through the Franchise Negosyo Bacolod Seminar and Expo that started Wednesday. Lim said the need to invest more on infrastructures is also part of this PCCI’s initiative, and that both the government and the business sector should partner in creating more airports, attractions, and hotels. PCCI wants to bring in US$20 billion through attracting more investors, he said, adding that the current infrastructures in the country cannot accommodate more than six million tourists. To achieve the “InvesTour Goals”, they are now meeting with various chambers around the country to get them to work closely with tourism officers from city or town to the provincial level as PCCI plans to track a masterplan to promote tourism and find ways on how to double tourist arrivals annually, Lim said. In order to reach the target, PCCI has created 5A’s for tourism, that include Arrival, Access/Roads-Infrastructure, Accommodation, Attractions, and Activities, he added. “Negros has very good beaches, one in the north and in Sipalay City in the south, but the travel time is 3 hours. If they could improve roads to access Sipalay faster, it could be the next Boracay,” he said. It is also good to note that Bacolod already has new hotels rising, which is good as this will develop one of the 5A’s, he said.*MLG back to top