TACLOBAN CITY – Eastern Visayas will come up with an attractive website for tourists and make information on tourism enterprises available in Google earth through a partnership of the tourism department, trade department and German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).
 
Department of Tourism Regional Director Karina Rosa Tiopes said that the initiative is a boost to the local tourism industry since this will be the first official website of the region for tourism promotion.

 “The tourists can easily get information online. They will get basic information like category of the hotel, room rates, and how to get there. For us to attract more tourists, we should have a tourist-friendly webpage. We want to make this as one of the attractive website for tourists,” Tiopes told Leyte Samar Daily Express.

 The DOT regional chief said that they will focus on basic information. “If tourists are interested, they will search more on the web.”

 A team from GIZ, DOT and Department of Trade and Industry has been checking tourism enterprises in the region to get information and take pictures.

 Raquel  Capio, GIZ Private Sector Promotion Program senior coordinator for Eastern Visayas, said that they are still working  on data gathering and uploading of information and pictures on the web.

 “By the end of this year, we will complete the data gathering for northwest Leyte and Southern Leyte areas,” Capio said in a separate interview.

 The official added that the same activity was also done in Bohol, which turned as a very effective tool in drawing more tourists in the area. 

 The project will be fully completed in 2012 covering all provinces in Eastern Visayas. The initiative is expected not just to benefit interested tourist but tourism enterprises as well. The tourism department will also come up with database on tourism-related businesses out of this project. (SARWELL Q. MENIANO)