Bolstering Philippine tourism as it bounces back

By Chelsey Keith P. Ignacio, Special Features and Content Senior Writer

Travel plans were put on hold amid the border closures and limited mobility prompted by the pandemic. But as restrictions ease and places reopen last year, many travelers are now pumped to get packing. The recovery of tourism, therefore, is taking off. So what lies ahead for the industry this year?

From optimism towards tourism to initiatives to strengthen the industry, tourism leaders and players explored “Further Rebounding the Philippine Tourism Sector” during the BusinessWorld Insights online forum on May 3.

The Philippines has welcomed over 1.8 million international arrivals in the first four months of 2023, according to the Department of Tourism (DoT) Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco. This already surpassed DoT’s target of 1.7 million for last year, which the country also exceeded with 2.65 international arrivals logged in 2022.

“For 2023, the projections of the DoT are that we would be able to usher in no less than 4.8 million in international arrivals. And we fully anticipate the 100% recovery of domestic tourism this year, meaning no less than 122 million domestic trips,” Ms. Frasco said.

“We are very confident of being able to accomplish our goals and that I consider to be our baseline, not our ceiling,” she added.

Hotels and restaurants are now also serving more people, according to Robert John Horrigan, general manager of Acacia Hotel and vice-president for Hotel Division of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of the Philippines (HRAP).

“With the HRAP, we’ve seen our occupancies go higher and our average daily rates; in our restaurants, we have more and more diners. So it is here, revenge travel and tourism is back,” he said.

Maria Suzette Geminiano, corporate marketing manager of Hotel Sogo, meanwhile expressed her bullishness over the path ahead for the country’s tourism.

“We still remain optimistic about the future of Philippine tourism. And by implementing the right measures and working together, we can further rebound and emerge as stronger tourism industry,” she said.

Ms. Geminiano also observed three angles in the changed behavior among travelers in the course of the pandemic.

These behaviors included revenge tourism among several people, with their eagerness to have relaxation and recreation driving them to book many travels; fear of the virus, which would push some people to choose a specific location to stay in; and spending more time with families or loved ones, after some people experienced losing someone during the pandemic.

“These three experiences or behaviors will all still drive us to the improvement of our tourism,” Ms. Geminiano said.

Promotion

Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) President Patria T. Chiong also said they are “very optimistic and enthusiastic” now as they are launching events, travels, and tourism, as well as promoting the Philippines as a tourist destination domestically and internationally.

Ms. Chiong especially promoted other parts of the country among Filipino travelers. “We should not only promote Manila because Manila is already congested to our international travelers, but also promote the other cities,” she said.

“We not only have Manila as a tourist destination, but we also have Cebu, Davao, Siargao, and other destinations in the Philippines. As all of us know, the Philippines is an archipelago and we have more than 7,000 islands and we cater to all types of tourists,” she added.

Ms. Chiong also considered word-of-mouth advertising as the best way to persuade friends and family members to travel to one’s preferred tourist destinations in the country.

Additionally, she highlighted that Filipinos should help each other and promote the country to foreign people abroad.

“That’s what I do every time I go abroad. I inform my foreign friends, ‘Come and visit us and I’ll show you around.’ If all Filipinos could do that — or let’s just say half of us, that is already 55 million — it would be easy to achieve the target of DoT,” she said.

Infrastructure

HRAP’s Mr. Horrigan hoped Philippine tourism’s gross domestic product to reach 20%, similar to its neighboring countries Malaysia and Thailand. For this matter, he said, the key is infrastructure.

“The World Travel and Tourism Council were talking about the Philippines. We have the best beaches, the best people, but they were talking about infrastructure. And so that’s one area that we lacked, meaning international airports,” he shared.

Yet, he said that HRAP is excited about the creation of more international airports, such as the Bulacan International Airport and the Sangley Airport in Cavite.

“A lot of countries have issues with manpower, their beaches are not as nice. We actually have them all. So it’s really infrastructure, which the government is working on right now,” he said.

Key strategies

For the government’s part, connectivity, convenience, and equality are the three key strategies in going about implementing its vision of “establish[ing] a tourism industry that is anchored on Filipino culture, heritage, and identity, which aims to be sustainable, resilient, and competitive in order to transform the Philippines into a tourism powerhouse in Asia,” DoT’s Ms. Frasco said.

Among the government’s initiatives for connectivity is negotiating for more flights not only coming into key destinations but also to lesser-known destinations.

“We have also looked into the maximization of our secondary gateways, looking to expand flights out of our Metro Manila airport into our secondary airports such as Clark, Cebu, Davao International Airport, and the like,” Ms. Frasco said.

And to provide convenience to tourists, the Tourism Secretary said they are setting up tourism information booths throughout the country. The government is also developing a Tourist Life Cycle app and a tourist call center.

Meanwhile, equality meant ensuring that “no destination is left behind in the development of tourism in the country,” said Ms. Frasco. Thus, she said the government is looking into different tourism portfolio, seeking to make the Philippine experience known to the world. This would include festivals, foods, and products of local artisans and makers.

Sustainable tourism

As tourism is expected to get back on track, several destinations in the Philippines would be flocked by Filipino and foreign travelers. But would this affect the environment?

Tourism could cause problems to the environment such as pollution. To ensure that the environment would not be damaged by the surge of tourists in different destinations, the respective local government units (LGUs) have a critical role to play.

“The government has to step in because privately, we cannot control the number of arrivals,” PTAA’s Ms. Chiong said. “The government has to impose restrictions and strict rules to be followed.” And LGUs, she added, should support DoT’s initiatives.

Ms. Frasco of DoT also said that policies on sustainable development serve no purpose if unable to be put in place with LGUs’ cooperation.

Sustainable tourism is “the bedrock of tourism development” under the current administration and is the umbrella of policies established under the National Tourism Development Plan, according to Ms. Frasco.

She also mentioned the proposal for forming a National Sustainable Tourism Council, which would be composed of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and other related government agencies.

“So it’s a whole-of-government and whole-of-nation approach as far as ensuring that we’re able to institute policies that ensure the longevity of the destination, and to ensure also that we encourage our tourists to leave the destination better than when they found it,” she said.