Welcome int’l flights

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Last Saturday, a direct flight from Korea to Negros landed at the Bacolod-Silay airport. The maiden ZestAir direct flight, with 120 tourists on board is the first of 14 more such flights that will arrive every Saturday and Wednesday until March. Such a milestone has made ecstatic  local officials, as well as airline executives, hopeful that more international direct flights will be making their way to our province in the future.

ZestAir director Arturo Alejandrino pointed out their experience with Kalibo, Aklan where, in December of 2009, they started with two flights a week and now have a total of 14 flights a week coming in from Korea, Taipei and China. The Korean tourists who flew in last Saturday mostly came to play golf, but because Alejandrino says that after Aklan, Bacolod and Negros Occidental are second on their list of tourist destinations in the region, there is a chance that these direct international flights can become regular if we can expand our efforts to include other tourist attractions in the province.

Kudos goes to the individuals who have made this milestone possible: the Korean travel officials and their local counterparts who organized the tours, the management of ZestAir for providing the service, and all the local and national government officials who made the arrangements to allow our airport to facilitate the arrival of a direct international flight and the processing of its passengers.

While the proverbial foot is now inside the door, this could very well be a flash in the pan if all the people involved do not follow through. First of all, there is the airport that, despite being relatively new, has already been the target of much deserved criticism from many sectors disappointed by the quality of service it has been providing so far. If we are to become a regular destination of international flights, airport management has to get its act together asap. If we are to become an international destination, local and provincial governments will also have to reassess their focus on tourism in general, and the tourists in particular,  because getting international tourists to get here is one thing, keeping them and their friends and family coming back for more is an entirely different story, and that cannot happen without a conscious effort from everybody.

It is noteworthy that a couple of days after the Department of Tourism unveiled its “Its more fun in the Philippines” campaign, we get our first international direct flight. It doesn’t matter if we agree with the new slogan or not, but if we simply cannot afford to throw away this opportunity to prove to this new wave of international visitors that our province is not only worth visiting, it is also worth talking about when they get back home and coming back to for more enjoyable experiences.*