It’s all about the want

In this issue, we feature our frst integrated resort, Hann Resorts in Clark. Writing about hotels of different brands and styles, a humongous casino and its restaurants, a deft coverage can take some time but it only took us about a day and a half with the assistance of top management who were eager to show us around the complex.

Hann Resorts is spearheading the big developments that Clark will showcase in the near future. It is what’s going on in the region — from Macau’s Cotai strip to Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands, with Vietnam’s own integrated resorts in Danang and Hoi An. We are glad that Dae Sik Han is pursuing his vision of Clark as a gateway to the Philippines and that we can compete with the rest of the world given the right infrastructure.

When DOT busies itself with just waiting for good feedback from travel magazines before giving notice to deserving destinations that they overlook because of political motivations, the private sector pursues what tourists want from a destination. They attend the most important B2B events, sometimes forming their own sales blitzes abroad, are attentive to trends, and create needs.

A point in mind is cruising.

After all the credit grabbing and chest beating, it’s still the country’s private sector and natural wonders that save tourism. Cruises are increasing their visits to our islands. Well, not the humongous, mass tourism kind yet but the small and medium-sized ships flled with adventurers and expeditions who go and take their fll of our unique fora and fauna and leave happy and satisfed, grateful to the Philippines for being part of their memorable journey. They depart without leaving their trash, even contributing some funds to the communities they visit, nothing of the kind mass tourism gives us with all the trash and nonchalance. These new destinations are borne from the cruise companies themselves who travel to the country and along with local tour operators to study what would be of interest to their passengers.

Ships like The Coral Adventurer, Swan Hellenic Minerva, Heritage Adventurer, Seven Seas Explorer, among others, carry passengers who aim to explore our fora and fauna, our marine life; and just to point out that the Philippines is one of 18 mega biodiverse countries in the world, the frst in the region. Statistics from the Convention on Biological Diversity say that we contain 70-80% of the world’s plant and animal species and rank 5th in the number of plant species and maintain 5% of the world’s fora. This attracts the kind of tourist that will come back time and again, bringing their peers and friends and yet, are conscious about global issues and help out with whatever assistance they can give to the local communities they visit.

Of course there are the superships like Royal Caribbean, Cunard, etc. that will visit their usual ports in Manila and Ilocos, even Bohol.These are the guys who like big port facilities but can visit smaller ports because they have small boats they can “tender”. The ships can carry thousands in a single visit but the passengers are of a different mindset, hence, are offered shore excursions ft for their want.

Either way, the Philippines is in the radar of cruise companies that have not paid us any attention before. It is up to us to sustain and maintain.

By the way, does the DOT know what tourists want from our country? What are visitor expectations? Admittedly, if we just want to increase the numbers just to crow about where our taxes are being spent, then we just follow the playbook and go leisure and business travel. But savvy travelers today only put leisure as a part of a holistic experience. There is the learning experience or “discovery” part, things they can brag about — the unexpected, the pleasant surprise, that feeling of being uniquely involved in seeing a bird, tasting a dish, meeting new friends who genuinely like you, going out to drink tasteful beer for less than a dollar. That is only the beginning….

They will want that again, tell their friends about it, and then they will return.