By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

A top official of the Department of Tourism (DOT) said Negros Island Region (NIR) has significant tourism potential during the Tourism Summit held at the Social Hall of the Capitol building yesterday morning.
“It is 99.9 percent,” said DOT Assistant Secretary Frederick Alegre.
Alegre together with Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Jesus Hinlo are guests in the Tourism Summit initiated by the provincial government here and attended by tourism officers as well as mayors from the different local government units.
Alegre told reporters in an ambush interview that while the DOT has no budget for the needed infrastructure for tourism development, the cabinet portfolio “points its fingers where to spend.”
He also stressed that their main focus is to help new destinations like Negros in terms of infrastructure.
Alegre cited the TIEZA (Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority), an attached agency with the DOT where a lot of projects which have already been approved are pending.
“Hopefully we can push for it this year or in the years to come,” he stressed.
Alegre also pointed out that in terms of promotions, the DOT is practically all over the world promoting, and they just need to know how to promote NIR correctly.
He stressed that we need to have a niche attraction. “We take care of the promotion, we just need the materials,” Alegre further stressed.
“If we need to promote the region’s tourism in Europe, we need to bring Negros products like the piaya or the sweet napoleones, and once they taste it they will develop an interest and they will Google it as to where it originated,” he explained.
Alegre added he heard there are also blue crabs here but they haven’t tried eating it yet.
“There is so much potential but we need to be able to promote it properly,” he stressed.
Alegre also revealed the Chinese market is looking for destinations like Negros for their honeymooners.
“So if China is the market, we have to go to China,” he pointed out.
Alegre also said local tourists cannot be discounted as they make a significant contribution to the economy.
“We have more locals contributing to our economy than foreigners. We only have 6 million foreign tourists and we are targeting 7 million this year, but we have unexpectedly hit the 70 million local tourists at the end of 2017,” he said./WDJ