Tuesday, October 07, 2008 Tourist arrivals in C. Mindanao down due to armed conflict
RENEWED armed hostilities between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have scared domestic and foreign tourists from going to Central Mindanao, government data gathered on Wednesday showed.
Tourist arrivals in the region comprising the provinces of South Cotabato, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani and the cities of General Santos, Koronadal, Tacurong, Kidapawan and Cotabato plunged eight percent in the first semester of the year.
For the six months to June 2008, 293,937 tourists visited the region from 319,508 in the same period last year, an economic situationer report from the regional office of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said.
Of this year's figure, 292,675 were domestic tourists and 1,262 foreign tourists. Last year, there were 317,277 domestic tourist arrivals in the region and 2,231 foreign tourists.
"The armed conflict in parts of the region is largely to blame for the decline in tourist arrivals. Publicity for the region has been bad," Ma. Lourdes D. Lim, acting chairperson of the Regional Development Council, said.
The renewed hostilities prompted several foreign countries to issue a travel warning against Mindanao.
"Advisories of embassies banning the travel of constituents to areas in Mindanao, including Region 12, because of unstable peace and order situation, caused the drop in foreign tourists to about 43 percent," the Neda report said.
Lim, who is also Neda regional director, urged members of the council, which is composed of heads of National Government line agencies, local government chiefs and private sector representatives, to combat the bad publicity in the region to revive tourists' interest in the region.
At a recent council meeting, it was proposed that a tourism summit will be held in the region before the end of the year.
Armed clashes between government and Moro rebels escalated in August after the Supreme Court (SC) stopped the signing of the controversial memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD), which would give the front wider political and economic powers under the proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.
The Bangsamoro homeland will also be expanded outside the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm), subject to a plebiscite of identified areas.
Government offensives against fugitive MILF commander Ameril Ombra Kato, who is facing 129 criminal cases ranging from murder, frustrated murder, arson and robbery, are continuing with local military ground commanders claiming they are close to capturing him.
Kato, who has a P10 million bounty for his capture, was primarily blamed for the escalation of hostilities in North Cotabato province that has spilled to Maguindanao, which is part of the Armm, and Sarangani.
Aside from the peace and order problem in portions of the region, the Neda report said the continuing increase of transportation cost as an effect of oil price hike limit the travel of tourists and other economic activities of the people in going to and from the areas of Central Mindanao.
Cesar S. Sulit Jr., vice president for Mindanao of the Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines Inc., lamented in a separate interview the negative effects of the conflict in parts of the southern Philippines to the tourism industry.
"The conflict is limited to certain areas but the whole of Mindanao is affected," he said.
Sulit, also the tourism officer of South Cotabato province, said that what the localities are trying to do is vigorously launch promotional activities individually.
"The conflict has been in North Cotabato but South Cotabato, which is peaceful, has been dragged. In our case, we promote our province by ourselves," he explained.
