Tourism potential in the Philippines - still murky!

Tourism is the fastest growing industry in this century and our country continues to grope in the dark – somehow finding difficulty in achieving its market success. Tourism brings money to a country. It gives jobs to the local residents. It encourages a good flow in the production of both goods and services. It promotes our culture and heritage. But guess what? We do not seem to realize all these benefits which can bring in billions of dollars into the economy each year.

People have never traveled so much and so far as they are doing today. In 1950, the World Tourism Organization (WTO) estimated that tourism worldwide involved some 25 million people; in 1999, the figure was 664 million, or 25 times more than 50 years ago. The WTO forecasted 1 billion tourists in 2010 and close to 1.6 billion in 2020.

In the Philippines tourist arrivals is at its peak from January to May because these are the months of ‘fiestas’. The series of annual fiestas begins with the recent celebration of the Feast Day of the Black Nazarene at the Quiapo church. Then you also have the Ati-Atihan (in Kalibo, Aklan), the Pasungay (San Joaquin, Iloilo), the Sinulog (in Cebu City). The Dinagyang (in Iloilo City) and the Zambalawan (in Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur) – all celebrated in January.

Statistics show that over 3.4 million tourists arrived in the Philippines in 2010, almost 20% up despite the travel advisories issued. But then this is nothing compared to our neighbors – Singapore had 12.5 million arrivals, Thailand 15.8 million, Malaysia 23.6 million and Hongkong with 36.03 million arrivals.

My readers may think that I have an ax to grind against our Department of Tourism. Let me just tell you that, I have nothing personal, just doing my job! For one thing, the DOT stands out as the biggest failure in our government. During Martial Law, tourist arrivals in the country have already reached a million warm bodies. Some thirty years later, the Arroyo DOT proclaimed hallelujahs for bringing in during the first ten months of 2009, according to its own website, just 2,456,236 tourists. And this they considered great achievement?

For the record, during the month of September 2010, an estimated 2,053,406 tourists visited our neighbor Malaysia and that country’s tourism officials are depressed that this figure represented an increase of only 2.8% over arrivals in the same month of the previous year, September 2009. What our country did in one year, Malaysia almost replicated in just one month and the Malaysian officials are not happy. But ours were deliriously and self-deludingly crowing about their success. Susmariosep!

Our Department of Tourism officials in this administration better change the mindset of the government officials (from the local to national level) on how they should plan, develop and support the tourism industry in this country. They must harmonize all sectors within each locality to market their destinations! We must think big, think country!

Our government must also work on the resolutions to possible factors that affect decisions made by would be travelers: terrorism scare, air access with competitive fares, facilities, accommodation – airport, transportation, hotels and tourist spots/ sites (which should be properly maintained and preserved.

Look at Cambodia’s Ankor Wat vs. Intramuros (the walled-city in Manila). The Cambodians have made an effort to preserve the historical value of Ankor Wat. I have not been there myself but my friends tell me our sites are more interesting – the problem is that we don’t maintain, protect and preserve our historical treasures. In fact, Intramuros looks more like a vendors/squatters haven than a relic of the Spanish Period. The beautiful cobbled-stone street of Vigan is so dirty, it smells like horseshit. The oldest surviving Spanish city (which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site) seems to be losing its historical value with the establishments of modern buildings around – destroying the historical vibe of the area. Like Vigan, many municipalities damage the heritage of their town or city by allowing the construction of edifices (private or public) that do not complement historical sites. There are so many such cases and I wonder what the historical commission has to say about this. Or is this under the DOT’s jurisdiction?

Another tourist attraction we have failed to develop are the Philippine-made products. Our government has allowed free trade of foreign goods and so we seem to have lost our cottage industry. Those bags designed by Cora Jacob for example surely show the artistry and creative genius of the Filipinos. But where are they now? They have been replaced by Korean-made, Thailand-made and Chinese-made items sold at the ‘tiangges’. Can you imagine we have even conditioned our tourists to be attracted to the pirated/ fake goods the government seems to encourage to sell? What an embarrassment. Sanamagan! By the way, Cora Jacob and the likes are contracted by other Asian countries like the Indian and Thai governments to develop their indigenous products – what about us?

Another thing we need to be clear about is the definition of a tourist. The United Nations and the World Tourism Organization defines a tourist as – “any person who travels to a country other than that in which he/she has his/her usual residence but outside his/her usual environment for a period not exceeding 12 months and whose main purpose of visit is other than the exercise of an activity remunerated from with the country visited, and who stay at least one night in a collective or private accommodation in the country visited.” Given this definition, how do we classify the “balikbayans”? Are they considered tourists too? Their first agenda is really to visit family and friends – not to tour around the country. Whatever it is – let’s get ‘real’!

During the Arroyo administration, then Tourism Secretary Ace Durano proclaimed the ‘legacy’ of the Arroyo regime, the National Tourism Act (RA 9593) was sure to bring Philippine tourism to greater heights. He projected that there will be an increase of five million visitors in 2010. How he arrived at this figure is mysterious and perhaps he himself did not believe what he said. But if the incoming Aquino administration did not bring in Durano’s projected five million tourists, would it not show that the Aquino administration failed?

The implications of untruth (in statistics officially given) can have far-reaching effects that no doubt have caused tourism officials in our country to be considered as unreliable and untrustworthy. This is a major reason our tourism marketing efforts cannot and do not work. Isn’t it about time to resolve to be more straightforward about what we pronounce to our people and to the world?

The problem of not telling things as they are was a pernicious condition in the DOT in the past. Let us hope that it stops now and our new DOT officials make a New Year’s resolution to veer things towards the truth. Unfortunately, this is not showing, at least not yet.