Home 
MIDDLE Eastern visitors continue to be a lucrative market for tourism in Cebu, officials and tourism stakeholders said yesterday.
Regional Director Maria Rica Bueno of the Department of Tourism in Central Visayas (DOT-7) said their figures showed that Middle East tourist arrivals grew an average of 57.1 percent in Cebu from 2005 to 2009.
Last year's 10,803 visitors was a substantial increase from the 4,711 tourists in 2008, Bueno said.
She said their roadshow in the Middle East last March 15 received a favorable response from tour operators who wanted to learn what the province and the rest of the country could offer.
Bueno said the average rate of Middle Eastern tourist arrivals in the country grew more than 10 percent from 2004 to 2008.
The large number of Middle Eastern tourist arrivals are comprised mostly of students.
?Their ministry of education forged contract agreements with our local universities here. We wish these contracts would be renewed,? Bueno said.
Tourists from Qatar comprise the largest number at 34.27 percent, followed by United Arab Emirates at 27.08 percent, Kuwait with 22.87 percent and Bahrain at 16.49 percent, Bueno said.
Hotel Resort and Restaurant Association of Cebu president Marco Protacio said the Middle East market remains profitable.
?These really are the market that we are targeting?the leisure, families, students and medical tourists? and perhaps we should also prepare for this market,? said Protacio, also general manager of Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino.
He said there should be more halal-certified restaurants here in Cebu. ?At present there's only one and that's Persian Palate, which is not a member of HRRAC,? Protacio said.
Tour operators from the Middle East will visit Cebu and Bohol from May 13 to 15 to experience the tourist sites in the two provinces.
At present only Qatar Airways has direct flights from Doha in the Middle East to Cebu three times a week.
Qatar Airways' Cynthia Militante said they will soon upgrade the aircraft used for Cebu flights.
