Alburo: RP must act fast to rein in further losses

CEBU, Philippines - The Philippine government should make amends with the Hong Kong government and should do it fast before everything gets out of hand.

Former Department of Tourism (DOT) undersecretary Phineas Alburo suggested that the government should emphasize to the world its decisiveness to penalize the responsible persons in mishandling the hostage drama that killed and wounded Chinese tourists.

Otherwise, the Philippines is bound to lose thousands or even millions of potential tourists, who may cancel their planned trips to the Philippines, or re-consider their plans to travel to the Philippines.

Alburo, who has 46 years of expertise in the tourism industry, said that there is no way the Philippines can downplay the negative effects to tourism due to the failed security management of the hostage incident, although the event itself could happen in any destination.

The immediate action of the Philippines should show to the world that “they can act decisively. Those who were directly responsible (for the mishandling of the crisis) should be relieved immediately from their posts.

“Let’s show to the world that we are serious in putting punishment to the persons, commanders, chief of the PNP, those responsible, without waiting for the result of the investigation. Lets show to them [international community] that we are in control of the situation,” he said adding that by doing this, fears of traveling to the Philippines can be minimized, and therefore re-assure tourists that security in the country is being seriously given attention to.

Alburo, who was also assigned as tourism attaché of the Philippines to Hong Kong said that the Philippine government should immediately reach out to the Hong Kong government, through the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong, in order to easily resolve the issue.

“We have to do it fast, before it gets worse. We have been working so hard to attract tourists from all over the world, especially the emerging Chinese tourists, and with just one blow we are about to lose it,” he said.

After the “mourning season” in Hong Kong, tourism people in the Philippines should go to the Chinese community and reach out to them again, to say “sorry” or re-assure security.

According to Alburo “our advantage in this crisis is that we are dealing with a fellow Asian country. We can understand each other. Asians are kind. In Hong Kong there are a number of loyalists to the Philippines. It is important that we immediately reach out to them.”

Easily Alburo said the Philippine international tourism arrival to drop to a conservative estimate of 20 percent, not only from the Chinese travelers but also to other international tourists.

China is the fourth top market of the Philippines in terms of tourism, Hong Kong is the fifth. In fact, last year, tourists market from China was the fastest growing international market for the Philippines, with a growth of 80 percent.

He said Cebu, which is one of the favorite destinations among Chinese travelers can be badly affected by this crisis.