'Tourism provides jobs for the nation’s army of semi-skilled workers.’
THE Philippine tourism industry has been enjoying some kind of a mild upswing in visitor arrivals. Compared to the early part of this decade when we were plagued by bad news on the peace and order front, what with unabated Abu Sayyaf kidnappings, and even the mercifully abated avian flu pandemic, we have been generating more tourist arrivals for the past three to four years.
I shall not bore you with figures, except to note that the increased frequency of visitor arrivals are mostly attributable to South Koreans. There has been mild interest from some European countries, mostly senior citizens who find the winters in their country extremely uncomfortable. With Russia’s economy on the rise principally because of their oil exports and increased consumer spending, senior Russians who have never experienced anything but bleak and freezing temperatures have been traveling to the tropics for pleasant clime and warm waters. The same kind of attraction perhaps holds true to Koreans whose winters can be terribly harsh, except that the more business-minded among them find living here both profitable and easy thereafter.
Everybody and his uncle has stated, from the time of Manong Joe Aspiras and his "sunshine" over tourism, that the industry could well be the savior of an economy perennially bogged down in between mild booms and longer bouts with doom. Another advantage that a tourism boom provides is jobs for the nation’s army of semi-skilled workers. One need not be a college graduate to become a chambermaid, a waiter, a cook and his kitchen assistants, a driver, a busboy, utility workers, and such other services that the hospitality industry needs in abundance. Training from TESDA, TLRC and private vocational course-givers would suffice. As the demands of tourism increase, infrastructure building becomes necessary --- roads, airports, ports, hotels and resorts, all of which have a giant multiplier effect on the economy. Indeed, tourism is high up in the do-ables of a new government.
But tourism as an industry has to be treated as such --- an industry. It means that a supervising authority, in this case, government, must first take stock of what it has to offer. In the case of the Philippines, what products do we "sell" to the international market and specifically, to what niche, what segment? What products would appeal to the domestic market? How do we enhance these products in terms of providing accessibility and creature comforts so indispensable by today’s living standards?
Boracay is a product, with its powdery white sand, its clean waters and awesome sunsets. But the tourism authorities abdicated their responsibility to properly plan, and implement whatever plans there have been for this island paradise. Ferdinand Marcos wanted the island to be his and his cronies’ playground. This was where he brought visiting cognoscenti, mostly female. He even decreed that the island would be under the control and supervision of the Philippine Tourism Authority, along with other beautiful spots in Palawan, Bohol, Cebu, and the north. That ought to have been the start of serious planning, and to his credit, the dictator knew his directions. But he entrusted his tourism vision to cronies and their hangers-on, who kept asking, "What’s in it for me?" and eventually got their slimy hands on choice properties which they hoped to parlay into money-making resources, with the help of government financial institutions. But Marcos fell ill, then Ninoy Aquino was assassinated, and the rest is history, with curtains falling on the dictatorship.
When President Corazon C. Aquino took over, our tourism industry as marketed under Marcos by PR man Joe Aspiras as "the islands where Asia wears a smile", was the envy of most other Asian capitals, having already breached the million-visitor benchmark. At that time, Thailand and Malaysia were just beginning to "copy" the Philippine model, their nations having just graduated from years of political strife. The pricing bargains they offered were extremely attractive, with four-star hotels at 30 dollars per night, as against the 80 dollars that most Manila hotels then would charge. And they had a truly Asian culture which spiked European curiosity.
But unfortunately, that million-visitor benchmark for the Philippines was to remain stagnant for years on end. What happened? First, there was the peace and order problem, highlighted by several attempted coups against Cory’s leadership. Second, the planning came in spurts, and the implementation even more woeful. Boracay was left to foreign carpet-baggers to mutilate. Only in the Ramos and Estrada administrations was something done about its water system and worse, the sewerage treatment facility that the island so badly needed, but before then the PTA had failed to impose any centralized planning despite the mandate given by Marcos’ PD 1801. Ramshackle lean-tos built helter-skelter by foreigners and their native cohorts dotted the landscape. Worse, the Local Government Code, enacted in the early 90’s as landmark legislation providing decentralization of central government authority, left the matter of tourism estate planning and implementation largely in the hands of local governments, with nothing else but inutile support from the DoT. Boracay was left to the tender mercies of LGU officials who had absolutely no idea about environmental safeguards or carrying capacity. When I was appointed to the PTA, there was little I could do except ensure the fruition of a potable water system, and installing state-of-the-art sewerage treatment facility which though completed, I understand is not functioning fully because many resort owners refuse to connect and pay. Together with the governor, now Rep. Joeben Miraflores, we got a sympathetic President Estrada to fund the renovation and expansion of the Kalibo Airport, the widening and concrete paving of the national highway from Kalibo to Malay, and the jetty ports that would rationalize the flow of pumpboats servicing the ingress and egress to Boracay. I got JBIC and ICC approval for the solid waste management program for the island, but then the curtain was about to fall on the short-lived Estrada government. I wonder if successive PTA managements were able to move this to fruition. But the efforts were really difficult considering previous neglect and the often irrational actions of the LGU which was more concerned about turf and prerogative than any world-class vision.
Despite that, Boracay’s visitors have increased tremendously, from a little over a hundred thousand in 1998 when we got involved, to 600,000 yearly, and counting. But while I pride myself with the psychic satisfaction of having contributed much to this tourism boom, I worry about the future prospects of paradise defiled.
Third, there is the problem of infrastructure, defined in terms of accessibility, provision of basic necessities including power, water and communications, as well as competitively affordable and internationally acceptable standards of lodging and food. This is what we woefully lack. Because of tremendous employment-multiplier effects on the economy, you would think that the national and local governments would do their part. They hardly do. Instead, obstacles principally on account of greedy corruption are placed along the way of private investors. This would take an entire pamphlet to discuss.
Fourth, the Department of Tourism’s marketing efforts are not only puny, they have been quite un-focused. Every new administration carries with it a change of leadership, and everyone has his or her own idea of how to market our 7100 admittedly beautiful islands, its people, its culture, its attractions. Together with selling everything and anything (seemingly unmindful that with our paucity of resources, it is best to develop and market a few products at a time) and politically-inspired or mis-inspired choices of helmsmen, selling Philippine tourism has been a willy-nilly effort. Without taking any worthy praise for DOT’s Ace Durano and the three-fold increase of visitor arrivals (take the numbers with a grain of salt, because unlike Thailand and Malaysia whose visitors are overwhelmingly foreign, ours include balikbayan’s like the current presidential spokesperson) under his watch, there is so much left undone. This includes rationalizing the prerogatives of local government officials vis-à-vis central planning and authority over tourist areas. (In my time, Boracay stakeholders were proposing that legislation be crafted to make a Boracay Island Authority similar to the mandate of SBMA in Subic, principally out of consternation over the ways of local officials).
Now juxtapose these concerns with the midnight appointments of a physical therapist-classmate of the Doña or fitness trainer (whatever) to the Tourism Promotions Board spun off from the defunct PCVC ably helmed by Danny Corpuz. And the newly-formed TIEZA, which takes over the functions of PTA and more, by re-appointed Mark Lapid, once governor of Pampanga. Whoever newly-elected President Noynoy Aquino appoints to the DOT will have to work with, or past, these people. The Tourism Act of 2009, created by law through RA 9593, provides a basically good framework for tourism development and implementation, but structure is always effective only with the proper implementors and purposive leadership.
If we had our ‘druthers, tourism ought be appended to the Department of Transportation, as an authoritative and autonomous Philippine Tourism Authority which would spearhead focused efforts on infrastructure development, incentives and linkages with the country’s transportation planning. For instance, wouldn’t the international airport be better located in Aklan, minutes away by boat to Boracay, than Iloilo’s Sta. Barbara? Lopping off a hill in Caticlan for a long runway has environmental concerns, and putting one in Romblon’s Carabao Island means choppy and longer rides by boat, while a longer runway and bigger airport in the flatlands of Malay may likewise increase awareness for a cheaper domestic tourist destination in nearby Tangalan and Ibajay. Good thinking caused the national government to put up a long runway and terminal facilities in San Vicente in northwestern Palawan, which is just as breathtaking, and longer than the Boracay beachfront. Except again, is there central planning, before this long strip of white sand becomes haven for derelicts drinking all night in cheapos fronting the South China Sea?
While on the subject of airports, the new administration must now do everything possible to correct the egregious situation of a decayed international airport named after the president’s martyred father operating as first-hand negative visitor initiation to the country, side-by-side with a terminal designed for domestic use being utilized by the nation’s flag-carrier as its monopoly even for foreign arrivals, while a third terminal lies rotting because of legal problems. Cut the Gordian Knot, Mr. President, and operate NAIA 3 soonest for international flights. That would be both concrete expression of political will and the message that this time, things will be done right, without strings of greed and self-dealing.
And the marketing effort is best done by a Department of Trade and Tourism Promotion, where consumer welfare is safeguarded through a spun-off Consumer Protection Authority with adequate powers. Selling the Philippines to investors is best achieved by selling the Philippines to tourists first. Just look at Thailand, Malaysia, even man-made Singapore and Hong Kong.
This article attempts merely to put things in perspective framework, but hardly suffices as journal on how tourism, once and ever touted as "sunrise" industry, could very well be descending upon its sunset in this benighted land of lost opportunities. It is an industry where a new regime could work wonders upon in as short gestation period as possible, certainly a do-able.
Fact is, even the unfairly belittled Boy Abunda with his communication abilities, could effect sunrise instead of sunset over our tourism industry, provided he gets the support of stakeholders, beginning from able and dedicated confidantes in the newly re-created department and industry players, and most significantly, a national government leadership which knows its priorities and would govern imaginatively, innovatively, and purposively.
LITO BANAYO
MALAYA Column for Tuesday, 08 June 2010
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