Bertie has done his homework

It is a pity that resigned Tourism Secretary Bertie Lim is leaving now, just after he has done the planning and thinking part of his homework. I have seen the power point presentation he made before a group of private sector stakeholders and it is clear he now has a road map to revitalize our ailing tourism sector.

I was expecting to finally see some action. It is a pity that he did not have a chance to present his plans to P-Noy. It is also a pity that it took him quite a bit of time to get the elements together. But whoever succeeds him has a well articulated game plan to follow. So, Bertie’s successor will have no more excuse not to show movement right from the start.

In fact, it is a good idea to still let Bertie present his tourism plan to P-Noy with Bertie’s successor in attendance. On the chance that his successor ends up being Mon Jimenez, a veteran advertising and marketing communications man, I have arranged for him to get a copy of the same presentation materials I have just in case he hasn’t seen it yet.

From the many names I have heard as potential Tourism Secretary, I am totally in favor of Mon J getting the job. He represents a fresh view of the challenge. I have worked with Mon J when I selected Ace Saatchi to handle the advertising assignment for Petron some years ago. He was great to work with and he delivered.

Funny how some people say Mon J is just an advertising man without the necessary management experience. They obviously know little about Mon J. He set up his own advertising agency from scratch and made it the number one agency in the country. You can’t do that without management expertise.

Trying to keep clients like Procter and Gamble and Nestle happy takes a lot of management skills. Trying to keep quirky advertising creative hot shots happy certainly takes unusually great management skills. I just hope Mon J has the patience to handle the bureaucracy and the politicians that make government service a living hell.

Going back to Bertie, it is a pity he is only starting to speak his mind now, after he has resigned. I was largely supportive of him and only became critical in recent weeks in the hope that it would get him challenged enough to show the country what he is made of. Alas, he had been a shadow of his MBC spokesman’s self.

But in fairness to Bertie, he did work in the shadows to lay the foundation of a good and very workable five-year action plan. Bertie’s plan can be immediately implemented. It is not like one of those conceptual plans of past tourism secretaries that just mouths generalities and platitudes.

The plan takes into account the fact that the Tourism Department by itself, can do nothing. For our tourism sector to flourish, we need several government agencies working with DOT. Its budget only covers manpower costs and a minuscule amount for promotions that could hardly buy a day’s worth of advertising on CNN. It is also over staffed by political appointees (like Mark Lapid) but undermanned, with few experts who can be useful. 

In Bertie’s comprehensive program, he emphasized the role of many government agencies. Indeed, I know for a fact that he had been meeting with DPWH, whose budget he needs to build tourism related infrastructure like tourism access roads. He has also met with Mar Roxas of DOTC to solve the NAIA and other airport and seaport problems.

It is unfair for some sectors to say that Bertie’s only accomplishment is Open Skies and that had been a failure. Given how past efforts to enforce Open Skies failed, finally getting the pocket Open Skies EO signed by P-Noy is indeed, accomplishment enough.

But the ability of Open Skies to deliver higher tourism statistics depends on many other things happening as well... like visa on arrival for Indian and Chinese tourists. We still have to address the concerns of airlines, budget or legacy, such as the common carriers tax, the forced contribution to the overtime fees of customs, immigration and quarantine officers and a lot more efficient airport services to allow them to turn flights around quickly.

Unfortunately, Bertie was unable to convince Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima on the common carriers tax. Hopefully, Sec Purisima sees the light or at least, gives the tourism people the benefit of the doubt and allow the lifting of the tax for a reasonable period so we can see if it will encourage more airlines to avail of pocket open skies or not. It just might work. 

As for the forced contribution to CIQ overtime, the Supreme Court has already ruled that providing CIQ services is a responsibility of government. It is a matter of proper scheduling of manpower so that there will be officers assigned 24/7 to our various airports. This is something the private sector routinely does in call centers, hospitals and yes, newspaper, radio and television operations. 

As for airport efficiency, P-Noy should eventually realize appointing friends and retired air force generals to NAIA and CAAP is a grievous mistake. He must look for professionals with experience in world class airport management and air regulation instead.

Getting that branding program and its marketing communications component up and running is an important priority for Bertie’s successor. But the new Tourism Secretary still has some more homework to do before buying the first column inch or minute of advertising. 

He or she will have to get the TIEZA (the tourism body that grants BOI type incentives for investments in hotels and other tourism infrastructure) organized with professionals on board and ready for business. We need a clone of PEZA’s Lilia de Lima who must also have a good experience on the  business side of tourism enterprises to head TIEZA. Appeal to Mark Lapid’s sense of patriotism to take a job elsewhere where he can do the least harm.

Another priority is to develop and promulgate national tourism services standards to address the complaints about the inconsistent quality of our tourist facilities and services. A 5 star facility in Palawan should be the same as any 5 star facility in Manila. Indeed, insufficient tourist facilities and services have been a major stumbling block to getting more tourists in the country.

The strategic vision of Bertie’s plan is to make the Philippines the “must experience” destination in Asia. The GOAL is to have an environmentally and socially responsible tourism that delivers more widely distributed income and employment opportunities as indicated by 6.6 million international arrivals and 34.8 million domestic travelers generating P1,759 billion in total expenditure, contributing 6.78 percent to GDP and employing 6.5 million people by 2016.

The program identifies the priority tourism markets: key markets (large stable or expanding markets) Japan, USA, South Korea, China. The strategic markets offering immediate growth potential: Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Canada. The opportunity/niche markets - emerging markets with strong mid term growth potential: India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Russia, European countries specially UKI and Germany.

So, what will make the tourists come?

Improved infrastructure is on top of the “things to do” list. Improve market access and connectivity. Rapidly expand capacity of secondary international airports. Then, expand connectivity between PHL and its key growth markets. Implement a strategic access infrastructure program between secondary international airports and strategic destinations. 

In this regard, improve, rehabilitate, and expand 23 domestic airports; improve, rehabilitate, and expand 21 seaports; improve, rehabilitate, and upgrade 28 strategic connecting roads with total distance of approximately 850kms.

Also important in the “to do” list is the need to institutionalize roles and responsibilities of DOT and LGUs; develop a competent well motivated and productive tourism workforce and improve governance in the area of safety, security and in dealing with tourists. The nationwide coverage of the Tourism Police is a step in this direction.

Under local infrastructure, the plan seeks provision of power, water and water treatment facilities and solid waste management facilities in tourism areas as well as the design and construction of tourism information centers and support infrastructure such as transport terminals.

The plan envisions linking local communities to the tourism value chain created by the major mix use tourism complexes and upgraded tourist sites in their vicinity. They will also review regulations that impede new product development (e.g. retiree, medical tourism) and amend accordingly.

There are other interesting points in the plan but suffice it to say that it looks like a good road map which the new tourism secretary will hopefully implement rather than spend time redesigning again. Bertie has done his homework… the fieldwork can finally begin.

Ceasar

Someone texted me this one.

Customer to waiter: Who made this Ceasar’s Salad? Brutus?

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is[email protected]. He is also on Twitter @boochanco