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The Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) does not share Tourism Sec. Joseph "Ace" Durano's optimism about tourism prospects this year, but the relentless salesman of Philippine tourism splurged on popular movie actress Rin Takanashi and Hello Kitty to promote Philippines in Japan at a recent business mission in Tokyo.


DOT Japan Team Head Benito "Bong" Benzon Jr. (second from right) and representatives of the Bohol Beach Club, Cebu's Parklane Hotel, Shangrila, Hilton and other tour outfits try to get a share of Japan's 20-million overseas travel market. Ace tapped Philippine-Japan media as well for this uphill sales mission.


2008 arrivals: Big dip or 7.5% rise?
Sec. Durano fears President’s wish for 5M arrivals by 2010 will not happen

By Rene Q. Bas, Editor in Chief
Manila Times
June 22, 2008

WHAT at the end of 2008 will the Philippine tourism industry be? One devastated by a big slump in tourist arrivals, or one that has suffered a manageable decline, or an economic sector rejoicing because it has had a 7.5- percent increase?

There’s a conflict between the assessments of the biggest industry group, the Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA), and the Department of Tourism.

The PTAA’s president, Jose Clemente 3rd, owner of one of the country’s most successful agencies, tells The Manila Times the Philippines may not even get a total of 2.4 million tourist arrivals by end 2008.

This would be terrible. If that happens, our tourist industry would be in big trouble. About 3.1 million tourists arrived in 2007.

Tourism Secretary Joseph “Ace” Durano is more optimistic. He and his DOT people have a target of 3.5 million arrivals.

From January to end of April 2008, there were 1.11 million tourists. This is a 7.5-percent increase from the arrival figures (1.03 million) for the same period in 2007. If this rate of growth is not improved, however, and continues till December 31, 2008, the total arrivals would only be about 3.3 million—not 3.5 as targeted by Secretary Durano.

That would, however, be as the moderate forecasters say it would be: just a mild decline. (Read “Most forecasters see only a small dip” by Darwin G. Amojelar.

Some rather bad news came from Secretary Durano himself, last week, in an interview he gave Reuters’ Karen Lema.

He said President Gloria Arroyo’s wish to have tourist arrivals grow to 5 million by 2010, when she leaves office, “will not be achieved.”

Durano was blaming “the way the capacity is expanding.” Infrastructure is the problem, the tourism secretary explained. There simply have to be more and better roads, transport facilities and hotels all over the country.

He told Karen Lema the Philippines has more destinations than our competitors but we still have to increase our capacity. (See “ RP, still behind best Asean performers, upgrading old and building new facilities” by Darwin G. Amojelar, for details of how the DOT is working to improve and increase our country’s tourism facilities.)

But the DOT and the old names in the hotel and resort sectors are not the only ones seeking to raise the Philippines as a premier Asian tourism and entertainment destination. The country’s wealthiest corporation—some say it is more cash-rich every single day than the Philippine government itself—is the Philippine Gaming and Amusement Corporation (Pagcor), the government-owned gambling-lord company.

Pagcor has disclosed its plans to help make the Philippines beat Singapore, which is visited by more than 10 million tourists a year.

How way behind we are

In 2007, among the largest Asean countries in terms of tourism performance and tourist arrivals, the Philippines was a sorry No. 6 to Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Malaysia had 20.97 million tourists in 2007, 17.55 million in 2006.

Thailand had 14.8 million in 2007 and began to reposition itself as a high-end—not a cheap—destination so it might get less tourists this year but earn more money.

Singapore had 10.3 million tourists in 2007.

Indonesia had 5.51 million tourist arrivals in 2007, up from 4.87 million in 2006. Its target for 2007 was 6 million.

Vietnam had 4.171 million in 2007. From January to May, it already registered an increase of 16.6 percent over the same period last year.

We got 3.1 million tourist arrivals last year.

We are better than Brunei, which had 179,000 tourists in 2007.

Some travel agents are worried that in addition to the global slowdown, the surge of oil prices and the food shortage that are all contributing to the decline of tourism, the kidnapping of Ces Oreña-Drilon and companions and the extrajudicial killings that portray the Philippines as an unpleasant destination will make 2008 a bad year for the industry.

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