Tourist arrivals near 4-M mark

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines has enticed nearly four million tourists in the nine months to September as the country enjoyed more brand recognition and tourism-related industries grew, Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. said.

More tourism-related reforms are in the pipeline, with the Department of Tourism (DOT) looking to put up a tourism court to address aggrieved tourists faster, he said.

“We are now roughly at 3.8 million as of September. So that means we are 1.2 million away from breaking another barrier, the five-million target,” Jimenez said on the sidelines of Philippine Airlines’ Manila-London inaugural flight reception.

The nine-month data points to a 22-percent jump, as foreign tourist arrivals in the Philippines hit 3.1 million in January to September 2012, data from the DOT showed.

For the eight-month period ending August, the country registered 3.18 million international tourist arrivals, up 12 percent from 2.85 million a year earlier.

“The biggest tourism driver is the activism of the local governments...the real tourism happens when the people of Bohol, Palawan, Cebu, etc. want it,” Jimenez said.

Given robust figures in the nine-month period, Jimenez said the DOT can still hit its full-year target despite recent incidents involving Taiwan, Bohol and Zamboanga.

“But it looks like we are breaking five-million [mark], that’s very important,” he said. DOT data showed that tourist arrivals breached the four-million mark for the first time in 2012, with 4.2 million foreign tourists for the entire year, up nine percent from 3.9 million in 2011.

To improve the country’s image, DOT is creating a tourism court that will address aggrieved tourists.

“On Nov. 15 we have a meeting with Chief Justice (Maria Lourdes) Sereno because there is a move to put up tourism courts that act faster on tourism-related cases,” Jimenez said.

“If there are crimes against tourists, we can act on it very quickly. We need a mechanism that allows us to pass judgment on crimes against tourists very rapidly,” he said.

The Supreme Court will be telling the DOT what the tourism court’s capabilities are, Jimenez said, adding that tourist courts are already present in Europe to address complaints of foreigners.

For ongoing efforts, the DOT’s Tourism Cooperative Program now has 1,300 police officers dedicated to tourism. This has helped reduce crime rates in gathering places like hotels and shopping districts, Jimenez said.

There is also a bill in Congress that will consider crimes against tourists as an offense of economic sabotage, Jimenez said.

The DOT will come up with a public information campaign that will promote better taxi drivers complaints of cab drivers overcharging tourists.

Despite the increase in foreign tourists, the Philippines can still do better as seen in high demand.

“We estimated that for the Philippines, the demand could be as high as 12 million but actual arrival is few,” Jimenez said.

To address this, the DOT is forcing the system to cope with big demand, with the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminals 1 and 3 to operate at better efficiencies next year, Jimenez said.