New tourism chief must unite the industry!

It was indeed a smashing weekend when the Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conventions and Exhibitions Convention (MICECON) ended with a bang as one of the more successful hostings of the MICECON seen in years. Next host for the MICECON will be Davao City. I attended the debriefing for the MICECON at the Marco Polo Plaza Hotel last Sunday and Hotel, Resorts, Restaurant Association of Cebu (HRRAC) president Hans Hauri reported no untoward incidents, hence the MICECON was a success.

Of course, there was one huge negative that happened as the MICECON was ongoing... that was the unexpected resignation of Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim. We in Cebu, especially I, had no inkling that after our one-on-one interview with Sec. Lim that he would quit the following day. Of course I spent most of Friday getting congratulatory texts from friends who say that I must have convinced the Tourism Secretary to quit; after all I was the last to interview him at the Cebu Country Club.

But in all honesty, by Friday afternoon Aug. 12, I got a communiqué from Malacanang (they always sent this to journalists in their list) on Sec. Lim’s resignation. Let me reprint the first part of that communiqué: “Last Monday, the President accepted the resignation of Alberto A. Lim as Secretary of Tourism, effective August 31, 2011. The resignation was announced today to permit Mr. Lim to attend the MICE Conference.”

There you are, before he even flew to Cebu, Sec. Lim most probably tendered his courtesy resignation, but kept this to himself; perhaps hoping against hope that P-Noy would not accept it. This is why during a presscon with the Cebu media, he was asked a straight question whether he would resign or not (this question was raised because one of Lim’s protagonists, Mr. Bobby Joseph held a presscon in Cebu last Wednesday asking the DoT Secretary to resign, which was front page news in Cebu’s local newspapers) and he categorically answered that he was not resigning.

But then, one of my Manila sources told me that last Aug. 8 the President met with Sec. Lim and a verbal tussle ensued, which ended with the President literally asking Sec. Lim to resign. Of course we cannot confirm this story whether Sec. Lim was fired or graciously told to quit. The rest is history. Of course Malacañang tried to “sweeten” Lim’s abrupt resignation by issuing a press statement of the string of his achievements. Allow me to reprint that portion in the announcement of Sec. Lim’s resignation. 

“During his period of service as Secretary of Tourism, international visitors increased to an unprecedented level: over 3.7 million arrivals between July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011. This was an increase of over half a million visitors over the previous 12-month period. Domestic travelers increased from 25 to 28 million. An estimated 400,000 jobs were created as a result.” Mr. Lim was the chief advocate of the Pocket Open Skies Policy, the landmark breakthrough from the protectionist policies of the past. All these are remarkable achievements. He has been a conscientious and highly dedicated member of the President’s official family.”

In my book all this is part of the charade that Malacañang set up for Sec. Lim, which brings us to ask, if all these facts and figures were really true, why then were they not included in the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July 25? I have a digital and a hardcopy of the President’s SONA and he didn’t mention the tourism industry at all, which gives credence to the rumor mills at that time that Sec. Lim was already out of the loop. The final nail was when Sec. Lim announced the Aquino government’s support for the Panglao Airport project in Bohol last July 31, but two days later no less than P-Noy said in Tagbilaran that he was not supporting that project in lieu of expanding the Tagbilaran Airport.

Meanwhile, pundits believe that the appointment of Mon Jimenez as the replacement of Sec. Lim is not yet final, otherwise other interested parties like Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel wouldn’t be presenting herself to get that job.

Whoever gets that job, my advise to the new DoT Secretary is a story that I concocted... that our Tourism industry is akin to a tourist bus. When the driver was replaced, the new driver decided to have one of the passengers inside the bus to seat beside him and thus he played favorites. Then they looked at the previous road map and decided to change that map. Hence it created disunity among the passengers and polarized them for changing the road map, including the Tourism logo. Let the new Secretary unite the Tourism industry under his or her watch... then his success is already secured. Tourism is a huge industry, it should be led by one with good PR.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to vsbobita@ mozcom.com or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through http://www.philstar.com.