Health, tourism, pleasure

In March this year, South Korea’s former president, Kim Young-sam, spent a week on vacation with his wife Son Myeong-sun.

It was a special period in the married life of Kim, under whose watch Koreans sent two of their former presidents to prison for corruption and other crimes. Kim, who rose to prominence fighting the dictators of South Korea, did not have the luxury of going on honeymoon when he got married.

So on their 60th wedding anniversary, the Kims decided to go to a place that has become popular for Korean couples going on honeymoon. Where?

Cebu City.

The two stayed at the Marco Polo Hotel and, as far as we can tell, did not have any complaints.

More than the absence of complaints, let’s hope the Kims enjoyed their stay in the Philippines, and had a pleasant experience to relate to their compatriots.

Koreans like traveling, and they don’t scare easily. It must be from living under constant threat of a missile attack by their next-door neighbor. After 9/11, people in the travel industry in Honolulu told me the only significant business they were getting was from South Korea. The same was true in several other parts of the United States, in Bali after the 2002 nightclub bombings, and in Thailand after the tsunami left behind (if the locals were to be believed) haunted resorts and souls literally lost and wandering in the beaches of Phuket.

The ghosts and political unrest in Bangkok, which once shut down Suvarnabhumi International Airport, did not dampen tourism in Thailand. Last year the country registered an enviable 15.842 million foreign tourist arrivals, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

Vietnam had 5.05 million foreign visitors last year, Indonesia had over seven million, Singapore 9.161 million and Malaysia a whopping 24.577 million.

The Philippines registered an impressive 16.7 percent growth in tourist arrivals in 2010, but the actual figure was only 3.52 million, with Koreans accounting for the largest number at 740,622. Americans came in second with 600,165, with many of them balikbayan Fil-Ams.

Why was this so, when we have comparable if not better tourist destinations than our neighbors?

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If we want to protect our environment, hold on to our natural resources for as long as we can, and shield our workers from exploitative, dirt-cheap labor rates just so our exports can be competitive, we can focus on developing tourism.

Economic powerhouse China and industrial giant South Korea both see tourism as the way to go for national growth in the 21st century. As one South Korean told me, manufacturing is “so 20th century.”

There are currently about 140,000 Korean expatriates in the Philippines, and about 70,000 Filipino expats in South Korea. This generates a lot of travel, with 150 flights a week, between the two countries. But leisure travel could use a boost.

We are now promoting medical tourism, not just for spas and health resorts but also real medical procedures that are cheaper here than in many other countries.

The government should also consider adding certain education-related programs as a tourism draw. Korean children come here in droves to take English lessons for a few weeks. A Korean expat explained that the children are more comfortable having English teachers who are also Asians rather than Caucasian native English speakers. Like other foreigners, Koreans have also noted the tender loving care that comes naturally to Pinoys.

Several months ago such visits were dampened after about 100 Korean children who were here for English lessons were rounded up and told that they could not take such lessons without a “special study permit,” which costs P5,000.

It turns out that under our immigration laws, non-business travelers can come here for a short stay of 60 days for only three purposes: tourism, health and pleasure. What falls under “pleasure” is left to a traveler’s imagination, but it definitely does not include education.

Ordinarily, immigration authorities will have a tough time keeping track of every tourist to make sure nothing is being done outside those three purposes. But it’s easy to raid English schools and threaten foreign children with arrest because they don’t have a permit for what they’re doing.

The government should instead identify establishments offering informal education-related services and impose appropriate taxes and fees. And then the government must exert greater effort to bring in more foreigners for “English tourism” instead of harassing visiting children.

We can also promote our culinary schools, which have mushroomed like lechon manok, to foreign tourists. Singapore markets its culinary schools and hospitals to travelers. In several countries, there are tourism packages that include short-term culinary courses.

In New Delhi earlier this year, officials told me that the Philippines should try to get a slice of the growing Indian market in wedding tourism. This has become easier with direct flights from Manila to the Indian capital on Philippine Airlines.

Like the Chinese, Indians are becoming increasingly affluent, and they like holding lavish wedding celebrations that can last a week. Celebrations include the entire wedding entourage plus most of the relatives, and there’s a growing number of Indians looking at foreign settings for their memorable event.

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Before we can attract more travelers, we should first do our homework on certain basic matters.

The first thing that any foreign traveler sees and experiences in a country is the airport. Never mind the facilities at the hopelessly inadequate NAIA; ensuring that airport personnel are polite, welcoming and efficient is good enough. These include immigration and Customs officers, security personnel, baggage handlers and people outside the airport building.

The next experience is the ride to the traveler’s accommodations. Usually it’s in a taxi. Never mind the traffic; it will be part of the visitor’s experience. But the taxi should be clean and comfortable, the cabbie must be honest and polite, and most of all, the ride must be safe.

Personal safety is of utmost importance to ordinary tourists. In the past year alone we have managed to spook potential tourists from Hong Kong, Germany and South Korea because of the scary experiences of their citizens – widely reported by their local media – while traveling in the Philippines.

Perhaps Kim Young-sam has a better story to tell about Cebu, the honeymoon destination. South Korean Ambassador Lee Hye-min told me last night that the Kims were “happy” with their Cebu vacation.

We should aim to have more happy visitors.