Frasco has hands full as DOT plays catch-up

IIs Philippine tourism up to the task of accelerating its recovery and becoming an Asian powerhouse?

These are the goals of the groundwork laid down last year which, in essence, go beyond destination marketing in favor of improving tourism hardware and software while providing for the basic needs of tourists such as toilets and chargers for electronic devices.

In assessing her first six months in office, Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco said they “look(ed) inwards to examine what else can be done apart from promoting the Philippines,” because “for the longest time, we have focused on promoting our country and yet we wonder why we never seem to be able to surmount our number 5, number 6 position in ASEAN”.

That inward perspective has allowed them to discover many things that need improvement, among them roads, bridges, water systems, treatment of waste water, sustainability initiative, airports and seaports.

Tourism is a presidential priority

Indicating that Philippine tourism has recovered after two years of pandemic - and its recovery accelerating - foreign arrivals in 2022 reached 2.65 million, 56 per cent higher than the 1.7 million projection and a far cry from 154,000 arrivals in 2021. The country earned P208.96 billion (US$3.68 billion) from these tourists (in 2022).

Of the 2022 arrivals, nearly 24 per cent or 628,445 were balikbayans or returning Filipinos. The bulk were from top tourists markets: United States (505,089), South Korea (428,014), Australia (137,974), Canada (121,413), the United Kingdom (101,034), Japan (99,557), Singapore (53,448), India (51,542), Malaysia (46,805), and China (39,627).

The Department of Tourism (DOT) is targeting 4.8 million arrivals this year (2023), which Frasco emphasized is “but a floor, not a ceiling.”

Medium-term, DOT’s projection indicates that the pre- pandemic arrivals level of 8 million won’t be achieved until well into 2025. While Frasco understood the conservative and cautious approach to this projection, she said it is “an alarming projection in the sense that 2025 is so far off for us to obtain our pre-pandemic levels until after 2025 and that really forced us to take an inward look as to how we can expedite the recovery…and strengthen the industry”.

“I don’t think we should look at it with pessimism but rather with optimism because our goal is to exceed the conservative projections in the same way that we exceeded (the projection) in 2022. And we feel we can exceed the pre-pandemic numbers way earlier than….2025….when we assume all the improved policies under Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr,” Frasco said.

Tourism agenda

Marcos’ vision of giving tourism priority and spreading its economic benefits across the country’s 16 regions has been translated into a 7-point agenda based on Frasco’s listening tours in and outside the Philippines.

The 7 are: 1.Improve tourism infrastructure and accessibility in conjunction with relevant government agencies. 2.Establish a cohesive and comprehensive digitalization and connectivity.

3.Enhance the overall tourist experience. 4.Equalize tourism product development and expand to emerging and not-yet-known destinations. 5.Diversify tourism product portfolio. 6.Maximize domestic tourism. 7.Strengthen tourism governance between national governments, local governments and stakeholders here and abroad

The 7-point agenda is distilled into three key strategies:

1.Connectivity by making tourist sites more accessible, lowering travel costs and digitalizing tourism services. 2.Convenience by improving the entire tourist experience and ease of mobility

3.Equality in the overall development and promotion of tourism products so no destination gets left behind.

In going back to basics, 10 tourist rest areas (TRAs) are going to be built in the middle of key destinations all over the country, of which 7 have already broken grounds as of press time. Filipinoinspired in design and materials used, each TRA will have rest rooms, chargers for electronic devices, coffee shop, tourist information area and pasalubong or souvenir center.

“One of the most basic essentials for any journey is the need to have a clean and decent restrooms yet it’s the most neglected aspect of travel in the Philippines,” Frasco observed.

Terminals 1, 2 and 3 of Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport were spruced up in aesthetics and systems management to make them more pleasing to the eye and more efficient and passenger friendly from arrival to departure. This concept will be replicated into other airports and seaports.

A due diligence study of all Philippine destinations was undertaken to know which have tertiary hospitals and health facilities and will include provision for hyperbaric chamber in dive sites.

Convergence

The DOT made a pact with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to introduce and further improve internet connectivity in 94 identified tourist destinations and digitalize tourism services nationwide.

An e-visa platform has been proposed for certain key source markets including China and India which have big groups and allow tourists from non-visa countries to stay longer.

In preparing for the influx of Chinese tourists with the reopening of China’s borders on Jan. 8, the DOT is closely coordinating with tourism attaches in Beiing and Shanghai to negotiate the reopening of commercial and chartered flights and will launch cruise tourism in February with at least 156 points of call across 40 island destinations.

The DOT is also aggressively pursuing the resumption of domestic and international flights and additional flights.

It is also working with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) on the road infrastructure convergence program. Frasco said there are already continuing infrastructure projects that were already identified previously and the list has already been compiled.

A memorandum of agreement will be signed with the Department of National Defense to reassure peace and security in reopening Mindanao to tourism. The areas that will be reopened first are naturally those with gateways including Davao and its neighboring provinces, Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga. Tourism regional directors in Mindanao, notwithstanding the challenges in the development of the area, have tourism programs and packages in place and will be expanded and be made readily available as early as this year, Frasco said.

To be rolled out in the first quarter of the year is the Philippine Experience: Cultural Heritage and Arts Caravan centered around the country’s “Filipino-ness” with thematic experiences on food and gastronomy, pilgrimage and wellness, festivals, living culture, heritage, etc.

Suroy Suroy Pilipinas tour packages has benchmarked Suroy Suroy Sugu, a pilot program in Cebu Province which proved to be successful in opening lesser known destinations to tourism.

Pinky Forte