By: Janeth Lim-Villarojo

Global television news arm CNN has committed to help Bohol recalibrate its image as a world-class tourist destination and magnetic economic hub in Asia. The provincial government, with its collaborative partners - the Department of Tourism (DOT), the United States Agency for International Development-Advancing Philippine Competitiveness (USAID COMPETE), United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), who have recently come up with the Bohol Tourism Recovery Plan (BTRP) - have engaged the assistance and advice of the CNN International Task Group (CNN TASK) in a branding and marketing workshop here.

The workshop result, the brand called "Behold Bohol," is said to be reflective of Boholano values, being seriously viewed as an enviable source of people's identity. The "Behold Bohol" brand would project the province as a family-oriented and wholesome eco-cultural tourist destination where usual tourist attractions like the Chocolate Hills and the tarsier will be complemented by other sets of images and experiences such as adventure and exploration rides and treks including on-road and coastal tours, food tours, souvenir collecting, craft experiences and even geological ones. Sally Young and Anita Mendirata, both of CCN TASK, discussed and facilitated the power-charged activity and got everyone breathless with excitement when they got winded of how tourism, which is the third biggest economic sector worldwide, could boost Bohol's economy and lift the people's standard of living if properly planned and handled, and of course, branded. Gov. Edgar M. Chatto is leading the process of reengineering Bohol's image.

With him were the Provincial Administrator Alfonso Damalerio II, Board Member Yul Lopez, Atty. Doy Nunag and Peter Dejaresco of the Provincial Tourism Council (PTC), Josephine Cabarrus of Bohol Tourism Office, Twinkle Rodolfo and Andrea Echavez of USAID COMPETE, hotel and resort operators and other tourism stakeholders. "Branding is about consistency and staying true to what you are," according to Mendirata. Mendirata said that "for several decades, everyone had been anxiously waiting for this moment when Bohol could come up with something fitting to describe its God-given natural beauty and package it in such a way wherein every single strand of its natural wonders and breathtaking beauty could be molded into one with its rich cultural heritage and history." The arrival of UNWTO's Secretary General Dr. Taleb Rifai in Bohol barely two months ago to lead the turnover rites of the province's recovery roadmap signaled the re-opening of the floodgates of tourism in Bohol to go full scale which momentarily suffered a setback right after last year's October 15 earthquake.

Mendirata said that the last 40 years have seen tourism grow from 189 million people travelling the planet to one billion in 2012 and 1.087 billion in 2013, where 8.6 million passengers take to the skies everyday. The figure, she added, is set to reach 1.8 billion by 2030 which could be considered a true revolution. She disclosed that the next 40 years will surely witness the continued growth of the tourism sector which is why this early, Boholanos should accelerate their commitment to translating this immense movement of people into truly shared benefits for all, namely: the communities, the travel industry and the tourists. In 2013, the country got a share of 4.7 million tourists from the international market, where the travel and tourism sector supported 4,295 jobs, which is 11.3 percent of the country's total employment. As to investments, the same year saw a total of US$1.91 billion for the same sector which got a 3.6% slice of the pie and this is expected to rise by 3.8 percent this year.

According to the USAID COMPETE Project and the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) who got their data from DOT-7, international tourist arrivals last year have reached 108,608, as compared to domestic tourist arrivals numbering 281,159, which increased by 4 percent as compared to that of 2010. Chatto has said he is confident that Bohol would get a considerable share of the tourist influx next year and beyond. The governor said that since tourism is the most resilient industry “we could rely on, now is the time to re-assess, evaluate and prepare this industry.” The new "Behold Bohol" brand will have a soft launch at the next global travel event on September 17-19, 2014 at the 37th PATA Travel Mart at the Diamond Island Convention and Exhibition Centre in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Major launching will be on November 3-6, 2014 at one of the longest-running worldwide travel trade shows, the World Travel Market, at ExCel London. Branding is an exercise where a name, term or symbol, or other type of feature is used to define or identify one's product or services, where one reaps long-term profitability through increased customer loyalty. It entails commitment and repeated customer patronization behavior following perceived values, satisfaction and brand trust. The BTRP, touted as Bohol's tourism recovery "bible," contains marketing strategies and the development of new tourism products that will strengthen the province's position as an eco-cultural tourism destination sans the most important thing: the branding; hence, the workshop.