Countryside tourism: Preventing rural exodus
The just concluded 70th Annual National Convention of the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants held in Puerto Princesa, Palawan reinforced what the 69th edition in Cebu did. Similarly, several topics were very timely and appropriate as these dealt with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) integration and the creation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). With international speakers on hand to stress some significant points of globalization, the sense of urgency has heightened a bit.
Indeed, transforming the ASEAN into one ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is imminent. It simply means freer trade of both goods and services among the ASEAN countries. Consequently, we shall be among an economic market of about 600 million people or about 8 percent of the global population. This will be an aggrupation of countries whose size can possibly leverage against first world countries and some dominant countries or other unions of countries like China and the European Union, respectively. However, though the very essence of the integration is cooperation, which necessitates that member countries complement each other, competition within is still inevitable. In preparing for it, countries like Singapore will have approaches totally different from ours. Undoubtedly though, each country’s ability to strengthen their micro and small enterprises, generate foreign direct investments (FDIs), and lure tourism industry players will be brought to fore.
Strengthening micro and small enterprises could be tough. As we all know, most of our micro and small enterprises would prefer to go underground for one reason or another (probably, to evade taxes, among others). However, such business model, though proponents give more emphasis in saving taxes, resulted to a host of many other concerns. For instance, due to their preference to go underground, there are no valid evidences (Taxpayer’s Identification Number, income tax return, income tax returns, business permits, etc.) of their existence. Consequently, they remain non-bankable. Thus, they usually fail to attract capital to fund projects. Moreover, as branding is the name of the game right now, they fail to cash in on name recall, thus, threatening sustainability.
As far as these FDIs and tourism initiatives are concerned, it would seem an uphill climb too. For one, in the ASEAN right now, Singapore is cornering the biggest chunk of FDIs. With the government’s unbending stance as far as amending some economic provisions of the constitution as well as the removal of some restrictions in the Foreign Investments Negative List (FINL), we have become the least preferred destination of FDIs. Consequently, we simply placed 6th and is among the laggards in the ASEAN in this respect. Way behind Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Viet Nam.
Fortunately though, tourism could be the saving grace. In this respect, the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report (TTCR) 2014 can guide us through. As reported, the travel and tourism (T&T) sector “generated US$7.6 trillion (10% of global GDP) and 277 million jobs (1 in 11 jobs) for the global economy in 2014”. It further reported that “recent years have seen Travel & Tourism growing at a faster rate than both the wider economy and other significant sectors such as automotive, financial services and health care”. Likewise, it reported that “last year was no exception” as “international tourist arrivals also surged, reaching nearly 1.14billion and visitor spending more than matched that growth”. Notably, “visitors from emerging economies now represent a 46% share of these international arrivals (up from 38% in 2000), proving the growth and increased opportunities for travel from those in these new markets”.
Indeed, this upbeat news is very encouraging globally. However, nationally, tourism remains a big concern. While the country rose from 94th place in 2011 to 60th in the 2014th TTCR survey, other countries in the ASEAN, likewise, improved their rankings. So that among the ASEAN member nations, we remain in 6th place, a very far 6th with only 4,833,368 arrivals. The ASEAN Tourism Statistics Database will help us sort this out. As expected, in terms of tourist arrivals, Malaysia led all countries in the ASEAN with 27,437,315, followed by Thailand (24,779,768), Singapore (15,095,152), Indonesia (9,435,411) and Viet Nam (7,874,312). Just right behind us is Cambodia with 4,502,775.
Why are these countries ahead of us? The answer is very simple, the lack of tourism-related infrastructure. Take the case of the The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, one of the world’s seven wonders of nature. Located about 50 km north of the city of Puerto Princesa, Palawan, it was hardly accessible in the 1990s. Then, one has to stay overnight to reach and enjoy the place. Thus, it never brought in so much visitors. Yesterday, as we tried our luck, we only spent a day (despite having a side trip to the mangrove park). The reason, they made it accessible by constructing a road that leads to the place.
So that, as the ASEAN, as a whole, entertains nearly 100 million tourists annually and gears up for ecotourism, we (all LGUs) should likewise prepare by replicating what Palawan did. Remember, we already have interesting destinations. The only concern is, making these spots reachable. Just requiring roads, these will only require minimal investment. With such minimal investment, it shall generate jobs and certainly reinvigorate the countryside. Consequently, it shall prevent rural flight or rural exodus.
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