By JOY R. SEVILLA
GENERAL SANTOS CITY - (September 29, 2013) - The Mindanao Development Authority (MINDA) is still hopeful to meet, if not surpass, the tourist arrivals in 2012 which hit close to 4.5 million tourists despite the recent crisis in Zamboanga which may adversely affect the number of tourist arrivals this year.
Milva Carina, senior economic development specialist of MINDA, said Mindanao is a big place and this fact should not prevent government agencies, the private sector and other tourism stakeholders to market and promote its tourism.
“We are still hopeful that we will meet the target through the help and collaborative efforts of the government agencies and the private sector,” Carina said during the open forum of the Tourism Summit held at the KCC Convention Center Friday (September 27).
She added that MINDA is happy for the kind of initiative that the Department of Tourism (DOT) has organized, gathering tourism stakeholders and government agencies to learn more about the tourism agenda and challenges for Mindanao.
The Tourism Summit was one of the highlights of DOT Region 12’s celebration of the Tourism Week dubbed as 12th Paradise which ran from September 25 to 28, 2013.
On September 28, Sarangani Province hosted the Mindanao Tourism Congress at the Sarangani Highlands in General Santos City which was also participated in by government agencies and tourism stakeholders from the whole island of Mindanao.
Carina said one way of marketing Mindanao is to write positive stories about how beautiful and friendly it is to tourists.
“For every one negative story about Mindanao, let us have at least five or more positive stories so that our efforts of promoting it will not be put to waste,” she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment