Tourism stakeholders urged to pool resources

MANILA, Philippines - A top official of the country’s youngest airline appealed to tourism officials and stakeholders to come together for the sake of the country and pool resources on a focused approach at marketing new destinations.

Dr. Joel Mendoza, chief executive officer of Skyjet Airlines, said that our country has more exotic destinations aside from Boracay and Palawan that the world has yet to discover.

 â€œCaramoan was just another one of our taken for granted gems until Survivor raved about it. Many foreign travel wholesalers believed in its potential and we now have more foreigners coming over,” said Mendoza, lamenting the fact that foreign travelers are more aware about Caramoan’s allure than Filipinos in our own country.

 The young airline executive believes that our country would be able to expand our market base faster if the world hears about and sees more of our other tourist spots than the usual Boracay.

“We have 7,107 islands! There is still so much more the Philippines has to offer,” Mendoza said, adding that currently, most tourism destinations have their respective followers and are already enjoying the benefits of tourism. But that replicating the Batanes experience of uplifting a destination through Eco Cultural tourism where communities and locals are involved is a more potent and effective approach. Especially, if it is done one province at a time.

The Skyjet CEO appealed to Tourism Secretary Mon Jimenez to cure this imbalance by promoting new destinations by focusing on a particular destination one at a time, “Why don’t we all agree on coming together for the greater good of our country and use shared resources to focus promotions on let’s say Caramoan next year, Siargao in 2015, etc? Government can not do this alone, it needs to be supported by the private sector, the local communities, and media especially.”

Mendoza believes that this is one way to achieve the much-touted inclusive growth of the Aquino administration where more communities benefit from our country’s national assets. Recent employment data released by the government showed that economic growth did not trickle down to the poor and did not translate to more jobs for the unemployed.

It is said that tourism has a domino effect because it produces more jobs and livelihood opportunities for the communities that hosts tourist attractions. More visitors mean more people needed to service them, more food consumed, more places to sleep in, more souvenir items to buy, and so on and so forth.

Skyjet offers jet service to Batanes, Virac, Busuanga, and Surigao using a fleet of BAe 146 “whispering jets” which are capable of Short Take Off and Landings (STOL). Skyjet also flies to Caticlan and Catarman soon.