Cebu City eyes cultural heritage to boost tourism

Tuesday, 09 June 2009 20:01

CEBU CITY—The Cebu City Tourism Commission (CCTC) is embarking on an ambitious long-term thrust to revitalize the downtown heritage area and turn it into a tourist attraction.

The commission will kick off its first heritage trail history tour on June 25, and commissioner Tetta Baad said the long term plan is to rehabilitate old buildings and uplift the overall condition of the historic downtown area.

“We would like to discover many of the history hidden behind the buildings,” Baad told the BusinessMirror.

Considered as the country’s oldest city where the Spaniards built their first settlement, this city’s many historic places downtown are now dilapidated, Baad said.

“We would like to bring the government and private sector in partnerships in order to preserve our rich history,” she said.

Long-term, the commission wants to identify and rehabilitate known historical locations and educate tour guides on the background stories in each destination.

The commission is also looking at lobbying for a city ordinance prohibiting the demolition of old buildings in the central business district. Developers should instead renovate the buildings while preserving the rich history of the place, Baad explained.

The commission also plans to make the “heritage trail walking tour” a permanent feature of the city’s tourism agenda where tourists join guided tours from Magellan’s Cross to Fort San Pedro to Plaza Hamabar—where the only real-life depiction of Rajah Humabon exists—and the Sandiego ancestral house, one of the oldest houses in the country.

The city’s travel tour operators, led by the National Association of Independent Travel Agencies (Naitas), said they are excited about the new program.

“I’m sure many tourists would ask for this tour. We just have to make it sustainable and efficient,” Naitas Cebu chairman Jenny Franco said.

The city government has committed to rehabilitate sidewalks downtown and promised to provide adequate lighting and security.

Part of the long-term plan is to rehabilitate the old tartanilla, or horse-drawn carriage, which used to dominate the city streets.

Baad said many business owners in the town center possess historic artifacts in their properties.

In the middle of the Hutong Hardware warehouse, owned by the Sy family, is the Jesuit convent that dates back to 1730 or before the congregation was expelled from the country, she noted.

Many businesses have “preserved history and we will now bring all these together for tourists and Cebuanos,” she added.