Letter to the Editor – Where tourism advances, poverty retreats

In both print and broadcast media, it appears that certain persons claiming to speak on behalf of the tourism industry have been criticizing Senate Bill No. 2138, the Tourism Act of 2005, a bill that, though principally authored by myself, contains significant proposals from other bills by other senators.

It is alleged that there is no need to recognize the tourism sector of the country. But what are the hard facts? Every single tourist brings in almost 1000 dollars. Thailand and Malaysia receive 12 to 15 million visitors a year, generating up to 15 billion dollars of their economies. Should we remain content with a target of 3 million arrivals and 3 billion dollars for 2006 while we panic in paying foreign debt and stabilizing the peso?

Even if our tourism grew by 20 percent in 2004 this is still behind Asia-Pacific's 27 percent growth rate - it is as irrelevant as our economy growing at 4 or 5 percent when our neighbors are growing at 8 percent. Even with that growth, our hotels are fully booked and are changing very high prices because of intense demand. Clearly, the people who speak out against the bill wholesale are those who simply fear change, or who have vested interests in keeping the status quo. In the latter case, these are people who have no concern on how to truly maximize the tourism potential of our country, or how to harness tourism to generate jobs and investment for our people.

We must regulate to offer a quality of service that is globally competitive. We must have a promotions effort that is well funded and truly makes the world know the beauty of our country. We have to develop quality tourism zones quickly so that we can accommodate more and more tourists while preserving our forests, beaches and historical sites. We need to aim for 10 million tourists in 10 years.

On these and other core reforms, there is broad consensus within the industry. All the major players in the industry, particularly those responsible for inbound tourist traffic, were invited to and participated at our committee hearings and technical working group meetings. There were 14 such hearings and meetings conducted by the Senate tourism committee over the course of a year and a half.

Officers from the Philippine Travel Agencies Association, the Hotel and Restaurants Association of the Philippines, the Philippine Tour Operators Association, the Hotel Sales and Marketing Association, Resort Association of the Philippines Board of Airline Representatives, Philippine Association of Convention/Exhibition Organizers and Suppliers, Philippine Association of Tourist Transport Operators, Southern Tagalog Tourism Council, and many, many other associations, entities and persons interested in tourism development were present. To this day, these associations and others continue to work with us in refining and polishing this bill. Indeed, rather than keeping deliberations in the committee, we brought it to the floor of the Senate precisely to emphasize its urgency, and to catalyze the industry to concretize the points of debate.

I can confidently say that only a few points of contention remain. One such point for instance is the alleged 5-dollar tourism fee. Yet those who speak out against it ignore the fact that special tourism fees are a global practice, that 5 dollars is in fact the ceiling (not the minimum nor the standard) of any fee that can be imposed, and there are numerous qualifications and provisos before the fee can even be imposed. Moreover, a tourism board that will be composed primarily of private sector representatives themselves will impose the fee. But ultimately I am concerned with the irresponsibility of certain people who speak out against the bill, utterly ignoring all the checks and balances that are built into it. These people capitalize on the public's natural fear and resistance to government power without explaining that this will in fact empower the tourism private sector to determine its own destiny.

This is the first time that a national policy for tourism is even being seriously discussed in the halls of Congress. This bill is the product of my experience as Secretary of Tourism. This bill is an attempt to address the complaints that truly matter, balancing those from tourists and industry players alike. We are 10 years behind the global boom of tourism. Now is not the time to go back to committee, because this bill should have become law 10 years ago. It is on the floor of the Senate today to demonstrate the urgency of generating jobs and investment. Even the President has certified it as such.

We emphasize that where tourism advances, poverty retreats. Those who seek to impede its advance do nothing to solve the problem of poverty.

Senator Richard J. Gordon
Chairperson of the Committee on Tourism