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Saturday, June 29, 2002
Gov’t, tourism players urged to work together
By Cherry T. Lim
THE three regions in the Visayas were yesterday urged to cast off their selfish ways and unite in their common goal to bring three million tourists to the Philippines in 2003.
“It’s time we got our act together. The Visayas is divided into several major islands … so we should concentrate on building bridges and linkages” so we can get something done,” said Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña in his welcome remarks during the Regional Tourism-Related Industry Congress (Tricon) convened to prepare the Visayas for Visit Philippines 2003.
He cited the example of resort operators as “stand-alone resorts. They don’t tell guests there’s another resort next door. So they (visitors) get bored after a few days. There must be some kind of integration.
“I’d like to be part of a major retooling, a reengineering of how we sell ourselves to the rest of the world,” he said.
During his presentation yesterday at Cebu Plaza Hotel, Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon confirmed the need for working together.
He said it was not true that the Philippines’ rates were higher than those offered by competing destinations.
Hinting of a lack of cooperation and coordination among local stakeholders, he said,
“The others (other countries) just have packages.”
Talk on women and beauty figured greatly at the congress.
“There are no ugly women. They just don’t know how to look beautiful. It is the same with countries,” said Gordon.
No excuse
He said the Philippines could not have any excuse for its poor tourism numbers as other countries are actually in worse state but are faring better in tourism.
He cited Vietnam, a “war-ravaged country with land mines,” as overtaking the Philippines in visitor arrivals in 2000 with its 2.14 million tourists compared to the Philippines’ 1.9 million.
Spain, which has more travel advisories issued against it than the Philippines, also managed to bring in 57 million tourists yearly.
Osmeña hinted that the Philippines’ lack of focus could be a reason for its low tourist arrivals.
“We are focused on too many markets. We want to the sell the Philippines to the whole world. That’s ... why we are not so successful,” he told the delegates from Eastern, Central and Western Visayas.
Courting girls
“It’s like a young man trying to court 50 girls at the same time. He’s not going to end up with any of them,” he added.
He then suggested that the country focus on Hong Kong, Tokyo, Osaka, Taipei, Seoul, “maybe even China,” for its promotional efforts.
For Japan, he recommended targeting the “office ladies market,” rather than the traditional male market.
He said office ladies were usually in their 30s, single, and living with their parents, which meant they had a lot of disposable income. They liked shopping for name brands, even fake name brands, and souvenir items.
He said this was the market Guam had successfully targeted.
Another thing he learned from Guam, he said, was that 60% of their tourists went there for its beautiful white–sand beaches.
He suggested that the Philippines prepare packaged tours along these lines.
Indeed, the places that are doing well are those with beaches, like Phuket, Bali, Guam, Saipan, he said.
The mayor acknowledged, however, that having beautiful beaches would not automatically draw the tourists in, as access would have to be ensured first.
“Ten years ago, it was difficult to get a direct flight from Cathay Pacific because PAL (Philippine Airlines) would violently object. So some of our enemies are within our shores. I’m saying our enemy can be our own flag carrier, for example,” he said.
He said if the flights were not encouraged to come in due to the low passenger numbers, the country could entice them by giving airlines enough cargo volume.
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