Reality check to be in world’s must-see list

This decade, with a little more patience, we may be seeing the turning point to a truly vibrant Philippine tourism industry. Last year, tourist arrivals remained strong, even surpassing targets, with incoming visitors expected to exceed 4.5 million.

Now that’s a big thing considering that a while back, the government had been campaigning for its one millionth tourist, a goal that seemed so pathetic seeing how much our neighboring countries’ foreign visitor targets were.

This year, the Department of Tourism is setting its sight for a million more arrivals, and with the esteemed Conde Nast Traveller magazine putting out a confession of having a love affair with our beaches and culture, we may well surpass the 2013 target once more.

This is all happening despite the persistence of problems that many international tourism associations have identified as preempting many more potential visitor arrivals.

Direct access

So far, it seems that tourists who are bent on having a good time in the Philippines are still willing to put up with the tedious airport transfers and boat or banca fares to well-known destinations like Boracay, Panglao Island in Bohol, El Nido in Palawan, and Siargao in Surigao del Norte.

But this is not ideal if tourism targets will rise to over 10 million within the decade. This simply means that more airports will have to be built in the high-traffic destinations, and corollary to this, having agreements with more airlines for direct flights.

This problem has been echoed time and again by travel agencies, and it’s high time that we seriously listen to this. The continuing campaign by the tourism department that it’s more fun in the Philippines may very well turn out to be an embarrassment if we’ll see queues of foreigners waiting at airports or piers to get to their destinations.

Just like for most planned infrastructure projects in the Philippines, private investment will play a key role. Upgrading our secondary airports will require massive funds that the government should studiously look for from credible investors.

Marketing tourism on the ground

Ideally, when a tourist arrives in the Philippines, he should be able to get an official flyer or brochure about his destination at the airport. This will be able to tell him how to get to where he wants to go, and what to expect. And he should return from his trip with a happy, relaxed, and satisfied expression.

To do this, our tourism department should invest in marketing tools. We’re talking here of tourist information materials, signs, kiosks, and a system that will ensure that anyone who needs help to get from one destination to another will easily find what he wants.

At the tourism destinations, investment will be needed for good hotels, hostels, bed and breakfast facilities, and even beach cabanas or tents. There is a need also for more professional domestic tour operators as well as transport services.

While many of these amenities can be funded by businessmen without any government guarantees, marketing and advertising tools – including the “It’s more fun in the Philippines” campaign – requires investment by the National Government.

For the tourism department, this means presenting a justification for substantial funding from the national coffers over a period of five to 10 years, which should be “earned back” when more tourists start to come in. One of the problems identified in the country’s tourism program is the low level of budget support.

Hidden costs

While there will be fees generated directly by the government through taxation and other earnings, it should never be discriminatory or arbitrary. The tourism department must sort out these many unresolved issues regarding taxation and fees slapped on hotels, airlines, tour operators, and even tourists.

It’s a good thing that airport taxes are now slowly being included in the airline charges, thereby eliminating the need for domestic and foreign travelers to line up in specifically designated counters at our international airports. It should not be difficult therefore to implement this in domestic airports.

Tourists want to enjoy their holiday travel, and will not be entirely pleased at being billed at every turn by totally unexpected charges. This means that tourism-related fees at the local government level must be transparent.

Competent work force

It’s not enough that Filipinos are friendly and unabashed about speaking in broken English or even belting out phrases of languages they have learned from foreign visitors.

Now that the country is on the cusp of being a star in the Southeast Asian tourism belt, it must put up a more professional look that starts with having a credible human resource army for the tourism industry.

The tourism work force must be competent and well-motivated to assist foreign visitors in pursuing whatever type of pleasure they have come to the Philippines for. While we have a growing number of tourism-related courses, many are still geared for employment in other countries.

Apprenticeship is regarded as one of the solutions to transferring knowledge and skills to entry-level workers in the tourism industry. But this must be done with strict supervision by the tourism department to ensure quality and uniform services.

Security concerns

Lastly, to break away from the specter of terrorism, crime and hooliganism that has punctuated our tourism efforts in the past, the government needs to show a more visible security force that is able to protect tourists from unsafe acts.

This means stronger ties also with local governments, especially in the areas where tourists will be going to and passing through. Only when we can provide our foreign visitors with an assurance that they can return to their homes in one piece and still breathing can we really realize our aspiration to become a must-see destination in the world.

Being a victim of crime or violence is not fun at all for any tourist.

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