YEARENDER: A good but challenging year for tourism industry

MANILA, Philippines – A good but challenging year.

This was how Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez described the local tourism industry in 2011 despite a series of natural calamities and problems encountered by the department.

Jimenez said the number of foreign arrivals was likely to surpass the target of 3.7 million by yearend.

“Based on current trend, we are already 13 percent ahead of target with (tourist arrivals from) Hong Kong slowly climbing up, so I can say 2011 is really a good year for the industry,” Jimenez said.

Tourism Assistant Secretary Benito Bengzon said that as of October, the tourism industry was only 500,000 short of foreign arrivals to achieve its target, which can be easily filled by 300,000 arrivals per month.

“We are very sure that we are going to exceed our target of international arrivals,” Bengzon said. “Looking at the statistics we could easily conclude that we did very well in 2011 with foreign arrivals posting a quite impressive growth rate.”

He said most of the foreign tourists who visited the country in 2011 came from Korea, Taiwan and China. India and Russia had also been tapped as new markets.

Pocket open skies policy

A pocket open skies policy was implemented this year, easing restrictions on foreign carriers and allowing their planes to land in selected international airports outside Metro Manila.

The new policy was expected to make Philippine tourist destinations more accessible and cheaper to visit for foreigners.

Industry stakeholders feared that the new aviation policy would harm local airlines.

Tourism officials, however, maintained that local airlines would be able to thrive in the competition. They emphasized that the new policy will be beneficial to the tourism industry because it will make the Philippines a tourism and investment destination.

“Our destinations are now more accessible as we have more airlines making flights, but we are now negotiating with more foreign airlines to come in,” Bengzon said.

Change of leadership

Former Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim resigned from his post in August amid allegations that he was among the officials giving President Aquino problems.

After his resignation, he made public his disappointment over the President’s refusal to remove from office Mark Lapid, chief operating officer of the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), for his alleged misdeeds in the agency.

Lim’s leadership was marked with controversy, including the launching of the “Pilipinas Kay Ganda” campaign that was eventually shelved because of bad reception and allegations that it had been plagiarized.

Jimenez, a former advertising executive, took over as tourism secretary in September.

Challenges

International pressures and natural disasters challenged the tourism industry in 2011.

Hong Kong still imposes a black travel alert on the Philippines as the result of the failed police response to the bus hijack incident in August 2010 that ended with the death of eight Hong Kong tourists and the hostage taker.

Hong Kong was one of the country’s biggest markets for tourism. Bengzon said that after the incident, the number of tourists from Hong Kong dropped significantly but is now slowly rising again.

This year, the employees of flag-carrier Philippine Airlines held a sudden work stoppage at the height of typhoon “Pedring,” leaving hundreds of travelers stranded at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Also, for the second year in a row, NAIA, particularly Terminal 1, was listed as the “worst airport in the world” by the travel website “The Guide To Sleeping in Airports.”

The Tourism department has been working to project a better image of the Philippines as a safe and secure destination to lure in more tourists.

Efforts are now underway for the rehabilitation of NAIA 1.

New country brand

Jimenez announced that the government had already selected a new country brand but opted to delay its launch to 2012.

He said the new campaign is simple but is expected to create a lasting impression.

The DOT Special Bids and Awards Committee made the selection from among the proposals submitted by advertising agencies that participated in the bidding process for the P13-million project to replace the very popular “Wow Philippines.”

BBDO Guerrero bagged the contract.

Laurels

Among the achievements of the DOT for 2011 was the inclusion of the Puerto Princesa Underground River in the list of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.

The New 7 Wonders of Nature website described the Puerto Princesa Underground River as reputedly the world’s longest underground river system, featuring an 8.2-kilometer navigable river through an impressive limestone landscape.

It joins the Amazon in South America, Halong Bay in Vietnam, Iguazu Falls in Argentina and Brazil, Jeju Island in South Korea, Komodo in Indonesia, and Table Mountain in South Africa in the list after a two-year voting among 28 finalists that concluded on Nov. 11. –Mayen Jaymalin (The Philippine Star)