Tourism seen taking severe hit from war; recovery to be slow
THE Philippine tourism industry, a Southeast Asia laggard, is expected to be among the worst-hit by the war in the Middle East, an economist said.
At the “Advancing Sustainable Tourism for Inclusive Growth in the Philippines” forum on Wednesday, John Paolo R. Rivera, a senior research fellow with the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), described tourism as especially vulnerable during crises.
“War, whether indirectly or directly (affecting us) will have cascading and medium- to long-term effects on tourism. Other than oil prices, tourism is always one of the first sectors to be affected in times of conflict and also the last to recover,” he said.
“The war in the Middle East is far from us, (but any travel is risky) because of disruptions,” he added, eroding confidence among travelers.
He said that the government should look at its messaging and product development to assure that the Philippines can always deliver on its tourism offerings even in the face of possible unanticipated fallout from the war.
Richard G. Daenos, regional director at the Department of Tourism, said that the war would definitely bring economic strain and declines in tourism due to safety concerns.
“We really need… to strengthen our preparedness before the crisis escalates,” he said.
He said the war reinforces the lesson that the Philippines should develop a healthy domestic tourism segment and gear any international offerings to short-haul travelers.
“We have to have alliances with resilient markets like South Korea and Japan,” he added.
Cherry Lyn S. Rodolfo, advisory board member at the Dr. Andrew L. Tan Center for Tourism at the Asian Institute of Management, said that the Philippines will need to monitor markets such as the UK, Germany and France.
“These are actually European markets that have been growing quite well, very robust in the past years, that actually depend significantly on Middle East connectivity,” she said.
“The channel is already missing at this point, and although there are other channels that they can use, it would require deliberate route development efforts for airlines to move some of their capacity more to this side of Asia,” she added.
However, she said that the Philippines is still heavily dependent on the Asia and Oceania market, where connectivity is well-developed.
“If we invest more of our resources for marketing and promotions in these short-haul markets … this is already economic resilience as well,” she said. “We really have to start mobilizing and reallocating resources to these markets.”
Christina G. Aquino, a member of the technical panel for tourism and hospitality management at the Commission on Higher Education, said the Philippines needs to optimize for domestic travel for the time being, while also being ready for the eventual return of international visitors.
“We have to make sure that we continue developing or promoting our destinations because on the off chance that the war will stop, we will have products ready,” she said.
“We need to make sure that we do not stop inventing … because that would be a good way of ensuring that there is consistency,” she added.
The forum was anchored on a PIDS study released in December which in part recommended updating the Tourism Act (2009).
Mr. Rivera said that the priority amendments include infrastructure financing for tourism gateways and destinations, stronger and usable tourism enterprise zone incentives, digital and data governance for tourism, and clear local government unit-national coordination mechanisms.
If realized, these amendments, he said could result in growing investment, clear governance, bankable tourism zones, and stronger private sector confidence by 2028. — Justine Irish D. Tabile
