Home 
Cebu City, Philippines - The role of tour operators is crucial in making the medical tourism industry in Cebu known worldwide, a tourism expert said Monday.
According to international tourism consultant Gottfried Hilzward, tour operators create the ?service chain among stakeholders.?
Relationships between service providers and the market are largely based on personal ties. ?There is no professional market relation,? he said.
Hilzward was in Cebu to present initial findings and recommendations on the tourism value chain in Central Visayas.
The initial findings were based on two-week interviews with key informants and province visits in Region 7.
The tourism value chain workshop is a project of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development for Sustainable Employment Program (SMEDSEP), a technical cooperation project between the Philippines and Germany.
SMEDSEP is implemented by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ).
Before the workshop, DTI and GTZ identified tourism sub-sectors which provinces should focus. These are health tourism (spa and wellness and medical tourism) for Cebu, eco-tourism for Bohol and Siquijor, and educational tourism for Negros Oriental.
In his presentation, Hillard said Cebu province is still in its initial stage of establishing its medical tourism industry.
?It is important to organize stakeholders first to avoid frustrations and inefficiencies,? he said while noting that there is no systematic marketing of medical services in Cebu.
Hilzward also highlighted the role of tour operators in offering medical tourism packages for foreign tourists.
Meanwhile, Cebu Association of Tour Operators president Alice Queblatin said tour operators should first know the ?service menu? of the hospitals before they can create a package.
?Selling medical tourism is a sensitive and touchy issue. We don't create a package because we don't know what hospitals want to sell,? she said.
According to Queblatin, hospitals need to provide a complete package containing the medical services they can offer.
Accreditation is also a critical component of the package, she added.
As soon as all these are in place, Queblatin said, it will be easier to establish linkages with foreign tour operators and organize transportation, accommodation and leisure activities.
On the other hand, Dr. Philip Chua of Cebu Doctor's Hospital emphasized the need to establish a good image of Cebu's medical care abroad.
Chua said a rating system of hospitals is important to establish the credibility of Cebu's medical care.
?We have to prove that the hospitals here can make tourists comfortable and give them peace of mind,? he told Cebu Daily News.
