INQUIRER Global Nation

A LOCAL company has stepped up aerial sightseeing tours in response to the call of Department of Tourism (DOT) to come up with innovative ways to draw tourists to visit Cebu.

Captain Jessup M. Bahinting, Aviatour chairman and chief executive officer, said they target at least 1,000 local and foreign tourists to avail of the flight tours every month.

He said at present 40 percent of tourists who go on sightseeing tours are foreigners composed of Koreans, Japanese and Chinese nationals.

The remaining 60 percent are local tourists.

Bahinting said they have 30 aircraft, 10 of which are capable of carrying two or three passengers in flight tours across different island destinations.

Bahinting said the company started offering flight tours in 2001 when Korean tourists expressed interest of “experiencing a different kind of adventure.”

“When we started, we catered mostly to Korean honeymooners who wanted a totally new adventure in their vacation here (Cebu). After that, Korean tourists who avail of the tours, peaked,” he said.

The company is DOT-accredited.

Margaret Rose C. Veniegas, Aviatour marketing officer, said they also encourage innovative ideas such “weddings in the sky” from tourists.

“We make it as adventurous as possible. Their experiences here in Cebu should be more than the usual,” Veniegas told Cebu Daily News.

Currently, the company is offering three flight tour packages with prices ranging from P3, 500 to P7, 000 per person running from 30 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes respectively.

Key destinations are Bohol, Boracay in Antique, Camiguin, Negros Oriental and Siargao in Surigao del Norte.

Although the general aviations industry is hurting from the spiraling prices of oil in the world market, Bahinting said they cannot immediately increase tour prices.

“We just have to shorten the tour duration for instance from one hour to 45 minutes to cope with the situation,” he said.

To ensure that more tourists will avail of the flight tours, Veniegas said they have established linkages with travel operators and agencies.

Alice Queblatin, president of Cebu Association of Tour Operators (CATO), said flight tours are specialized and considered optional tours.

“This is a new product but we want very much to sit down with them (management of flight tour) to talk about it. We need to know DOT accreditation and the extent of the liability since these are air tours,” she said.

Queblatin said CATO members support the new tour products such as tour guides as promoters of the One Town, One Product to ensure a vibrant tourism industry.

Aviatour also has a training school with more than 100 students coming from Nepal, India and Nigeria.

The company also offers chartered services, and ground and maintenance services for aircrafts.