In January, we did a feature on Philippine tourism, essentially a deep dive into why the country continues to fall short of its annual arrivals targets despite some of the most visually memorable and striking promotional campaigns in the world.
Since that article was published, Christina Frasco stepped down as the country’s tourism secretary and the Department of Tourism announced its plans of increasing the number of inbound arrivals from North America, West Asia, China, and India.
As of press time, Philippine President Ferdinand R Marcos Jnr still hasn’t named Frasco’s successor, and undersecretary Verna Buensuceso remains the department’s officer-in-charge, but operations continue.
With that said, however, the country will continue to miss the mark if it does not address the major issues that are preventing tourists from coming back to the Philippines or, worse, discouraging them from putting the country on their personal travel maps.
Four points for improvement
I speak as a former public relations and advertising professional when I say the problem isn’t in the Philippines’ marketing campaigns and their related paraphernalia.
The campaigns are professionally done: slick, polished, colourful; appealing to the tastes of travellers of all ages and all nationalities.
The real issue is a “perception vs reality” matter: foreign travellers find themselves entranced by the sound and imagery, but what they encounter is a completely different matter.
For this reason, we feel that Philippine tourism authorities ought to address four specific issues before they even begin to tout the country as a prime global destination.
It’s a matter of infrastructure and connectivity
We have lamented the state of airports throughout the world, particularly in the developing world.
But it should be noted that the piece was inspired by experiences shared by fellow travellers regarding the shoddy state of Philippine airports: the lack of facilities for travellers experiencing physical difficulty, mechanised walkways that have remained under “maintenance” or various states of disrepair for more than a year now, the application of new technologies that were apparently not road-tested prior to rollout.
If the Philippines wants to make a strong positive impression as soon as travellers arrive, then its airports must serve as its business card: properly working and maintained facilities, the correct measures for accessibility in place, and the comfort of the traveller in mind.
Also, such niceties should not be confined to just major cities like Manila and Cebu: the country’s regional airports, especially in tourism boomtowns like Boracay and Siargao, are in desperate need of total refurbishment.
It’s time to enter the digital age
Experts have likewise complained that the Philippines, once the standard its ASEAN neighbours sought to emulate and equal, has now fallen behind Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and now even Vietnam in terms of the use of technological innovations in tourism.
The DOT needs to team up with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to see where relevant technologies may best be deployed.
At the same time, upskilling of airport, hospitality, and tourism professionals should be mandatory, especially where the use of these technologies is concerned.
Beyond Boracay
The Philippines is more than just its beaches, its fiestas, and Apo Whang-Od’s mambabatok tattoos: there is a great deal that the country can offer if only the government could just sit down and properly study the potential of alternative destinations..
Indeed, the country has significant potential as a destination for art aficionados, agritourism, gastronomic tourism, and medical tourism.
It is also time for the country to go beyond the usually touted destinations and into places like the university town of Dumaguete, the notoriously difficult to get to islands of Batanes, and even Zamboanga, the only bastion of Spanish Colonial Rule in the country’s deep south.
Sustainability matters
The problem I have seen with Philippine tourism is that it goes gung-ho for development: massive hotels brought in by major global brands, extraordinary attractions to draw in visitors of all ages, madcap festivals that highlight the best in local hospitality, gastronomy, and even fashion.
However, it was a major blow to the country when Boracay Island closed down for a full six months in 2018, ostensibly to repair the damage caused by overdevelopment, rampant littering, and the literal poisoning of the environment.
That health, safety, and environmental standards were neglected in favour of profitability said a lot at the time of authorities’ priorities, and should have served as a wake-up call for the stakeholders of Philippine tourism.
Even today, local and national authorities are still struggling to ensure the long-term resilience of destinations, thanks to difficulties in implementing measures related to waste management, conscious tourism management, as well as health and safety.
To be fair, the situation is not hopeless: the Philippines has a great deal to show the world and a whole lot to teach it in terms of its history and traditions.
However, if steps are not made in the right direction, then Philippine tourism will continue to miss its targets no matter how fabulously it presents the country to the world.
