Joseph: Give tourism to private sector to be effective

A tourism industry leader yesterday proposed that the private sector would handle the overseeing, planning, strategizing and implementation of tourism programs instead of the Department of Tourism (DoT) to be more effective.

This kind of arrangement is akin to the functions of the privately-led Hong Kong Tourism Board and those of other countries, said Robert Lim Joseph, founder and member of several tourism and professional organizations, including the Tourism Educators and Movers Philippines (Team Philippines), Management Association of the Philippines and Federation of Filipino Industries.

Joseph said DoT has failed to serve its objectives, including attracting more tourists, because of politicking by Secretary Alberto Lim.

Joseph said up to now, the tourism industry is divided and the Tourism Congress, which was created under the Tourism Act of 2009, is not functioning, thus jeopardizing President Aquino’s tourism aspirations.

“The DoT Secretary’s action of not officially recognizing the Tourism Congress has polarized the private sector in the tourism industry and affected government’s tourism efforts,” he pointed out.

Compared to previous DoT secretaries wherein the private sector stakeholders in the industry were united and supportive of their policies and programs, Lim’s actions have pitted one group against another. “The secretary has failed to unite the diverse sectors within the industry toward the common goal as what his predecessors had done,” he said.

To insulate tourism from politics, Joseph is proposing that it be led by the private sector with the government would serve only as lending support.

“We could copy the structure of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, which is private sector-led and the Hong Kong government is only there to support it,” he said.

The Board of the HKTB has 20 members who come from a broad cross-section of the tourism industry such as passenger carriers, hotel operators, licensed travel agents, tour operators, retailers, and restaurant operators, and its funding comes from the government.

“We could start by identifying the major contributors of tourism and make them members of the board,” Joseph added. Among the major tourism stakeholders in the country are the airlines, hotels, resorts, transportation, tour operators, and restaurants.

He said a private sector-led tourism body would be more focused and consistent in its policies. He added that the local government units (LGUs) would be tapped to help in tourism efforts “and they will be given leeway to do their own tourism programs in collaboration with the Philippine Tourism Promotions Board.”

The tourism leader proposed that 100 percent of the travel tax and part of the airport tax go to tourism promotions to achieve maximum promotion for Philippine destinations and hit their target markets.

Joseph said the failure of the Pilipinas Kay Ganda tourism campaign of Secretary Lim last year could be attributed to the absence of participation in its conceptualization and planning by the private sector.

It was learned that in 2010, Hong Kong was able to attract 36.03 million tourists as compared to the Philippines’ 3.52 million despite the latter having a wide range of attractions.

Joseph said as it is now, Secretary Lim is spending so much of the department’s budget for his frequent travel abroad purportedly to promote the Philippines instead of attending to the numerous problems facing the tourism industry now. “It’s just a junket using public funds.”

He said the Secretary does not have to do the frequent travelling since the DoT has marketing officers abroad who can effectively do the job of promoting the country to tourists.

He added that Lim refuses to collaborate with the industry, including the Tourism Congress, and chooses only the people he wants to deal with and is stubborn as cited no less by some of his friends.

If he wants to be successful as head of a critical department, he should deal with all sectors in the industry and not alienate the stakeholders, Joseph pointed out. –Daily Tribune