Connecting tourism and real estate

Tourism and real estate seem to be worlds apart. In fact, spendings related to the promotion of tourist destinations, for the most part, come from the initiatives of local governments or from the collective initiative of the hospitality community in the area or both. While hotels and restaurants eventually benefit from the effort, what is not factored in is the amount of benefit that real estate owners or developers derive from out of those campaigns. 

Since we cannot fault small, private owners for also reaping the rewards of the economic activities that usually ensue after a successful campaign, real estate developers whose projects are located within the neighborhood must actively take part in promoting the place and should, in fact, out of goodwill, consider taking the biggest chunk of the promotional spending.                 The reason being is whenever government or private sector-tourism puts in money to promote a promising location, the developer comes in clean to take advantage of a forthcoming commercialization by bargain-hunting properties or strike a joint venture to build commercial centers or residential subdivisions in the area.

What happens next is that, the developer does not only compete with the hospitality sector indirectly out of the services being created after the development, it rakes in good money from sale or property rentals.   

A case in point is the real estate development that thrives in Mactan which I should say is a spin-off of the string of paid publicities and advertising budgets that came before it. And to begin with, they were primarily intended to drive foreign visitors for hotels, restaurant and resorts. I'm not trying to say that it's a bad thing. It's actually a good thing because it contributes to the growth of the local economy and opens jobs for a lot of people. But what's unsettling is that, it's the tourism sector that does the dirty work for others while those that benefit from such initiative contribute only so little to it or none at all as in the case of property developers.

Real estate development, indeed, is a self-seeking endeavor. Unlike in tourism where hotels can warmly share or refer clients, real estate developers are cold to each other in many peculiar ways but that's not the issue here.  I would like to think that real estate developers are among the main beneficiaries of tourism development.  Every cent invested in tourism, the property sector also gains no-sweat without spending from these efforts. Every tourist that comes as a result of that investment is a potential client for a developer in a real estate. Which means, because of tourism, real estate developers derive some savings on their marketing cost because somebody is already doing the marketing for them.  

A thriving tourism naturally pushes real estate prices. Apart from the opportunity to easily sell their commercial or residential projects to the immediate markets around the area, developers gain from property appreciation, improve profitability. What makes the scheme even more attractive is that developers can spread the risk to its buyers buy pre-selling them to its market.

Real estate developers owe it to the travel and tourism community for their growth and it's about time that they return the favor by doing its share in promoting not only the places where their projects are situated, but also in helping tourism and real estate as an economic driver for the province or the country.

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Speaking of tourism and real estate, I would like to congratulate RCTV and Rent.ph (www.rent.ph) for taking the cudgels in coming up with the first real estate cum tourism TV. This is the first in the country which we have conceptualized together with Anthony Leuterio and Arnold Nolasco of Rent.ph and Lyndon Angan of RCTV, with the goal of driving more investments in real estate in the country. The idea is to showcase the tourist and historical attractions of a particular location and then present the real estate developments in the area. In so doing, we package tourism and real estate in one TV program and help buyers make a more informed choice about the properties they intend to purchase. Now it can be said, "It's more fun to invest in the Philippines."

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