Cebu to tap influencers for Bantayan tourism event

The Cebu Provincial Government, in partnership with Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA), will be rounding up influencers to promote tourism in Bantayan Island.

Guests invited to the tourism event will board the first flight from MCIA to the island to officially open the Bantayan Island Airport runway on November 28. Bantayan is an island composed of 4 municipalities south of mainland Cebu. 

The event is called “Mini Suroy-suroy Sugbo” after the Sury-suroy Sugbo, a tourism caravan launched during Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia’s earlier stints as governor. However, Garcia clarified during a press conference on Thursday, November 5, that unlike the latter, this tourism gimmick will not be open to paying guests and will be kept “muted.”

The governor did not say who’d make up the guest list, as the MCIA would handle invitations.

“It is still going to be a  very carefully planned and muted affair. Kay, hinay-hinay man ta (because we are taking it slow). Pero (but) at least from abnormalcy, little by little back to normalcy,” she said.

The Mini Suroy-suroy Sugbo will be done after the tourism summit between the governors and tourism officers of Bohol, Cebu Province, Siquijor, and Negros Oriental on November 27, which will take up the possibility of inter-island travel between their respective provinces for tourism. 

“We are hoping to schedule… a tourism summit between the four governors on the 27th and we will invite them if they would wish to join us,” Garcia said. 

Cebu Province was among the first local government units in the country to relaunch tourism activities in August while under modified general community quarantine, the loosest quarantine status. This is in an effort to resuscitate Cebu’s tourism-reliant economy. With the absence of foreign tourists, Garcia called on the province’s residents to engage in local tourism to help out struggling businesses.

As of November 7, the Department of Health Central Visayas reported 22 new cases of the coronavirus disease in the province, 17 new recoveries, and one related death. As of Saturday, November 7, total cases stand at 6,371 with 260 active cases.

Cebu’s total recoveries stand at 5,721 while its number of COVID-related deaths is at 390. – Rappler.com