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Thursday, October 23, 2008
Arroyo: ‘Look beyond crisis’
By Elisabeth P. Baumgart
CEBU CITY -- President Arroyo challenged the people on Wednesday to look beyond the current financial crises and address issues that continue to influence the direction of global tourism.
“Let us address the major issues which will continue to influence the strategic directions of global tourism. Issues like climate change, the role of women, and the relationship between tourism and poverty alleviation,” Arroyo said during the opening of the sixth International Tourism Forum for Parliamentarians and Local Authorities (ITF-PLA).
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Arroyo said with fluctuations in the global market, global leaders should not “lose sight of the ordinary people” who immediately feel the brunt of financial fluctuations.
“Costly commodity imports like oil and rice should be offset by commodity exports, hard commodities like primary products and soft ones like leisure, eco and medical tourism,” Arroyo said.
Strong
Despite pressing problems that nations around the world face, tourism has remained strong, Arroyo said.
“The financial crisis in 1997 came and went, with barely a dent on the volume of tourist arrivals. Bali and the rest of Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) have suffered terrorist attacks, and most of Asean endured the Sars (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) scare, but the numbers of inbound visitors in our region have continued to increase,” said Arroyo.
In the Philippines, two million tourists visited the country for the first quarter alone, she said.
“Tourism growth will still be positive in 2008,” said United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary-General Francesco Frangialli.
Frangialli said while the current financial crisis has “worried” tourism authorities, it wasn’t time to panic because “the demand for leisure tourism still remains.”
“Tourism is a major creator of jobs and livelihood. Throughout Asia, we have models of strategies that have successfully integrated poverty alleviation with the growth of tourism,” said Arroyo.
Changing attitudes
The Grassroots Entrepreneurship in Ecotourism (Greet), a community-based tourism initiative in the Philippines, has helped 4,000 households in 15 tourism destinations in getting better-paying jobs.
The Greet concept is based on changing the attitudes of workers who unwittingly damage the environment to become protectors of environmentally fragile sites.
“Slash and burn farmers have become mountain and forest trail guides for hikers and wilderness trips. Boatmen who used to hunt our whale sharks are now ecoguides for tourist interaction with those beautiful creatures,” said Arroyo.
Meanwhile, Sen. Richard Gordon, chairman of the committee on tourism, said tourism has been the prime engine for the country’s growth.
In 2007, the country earned $4.9 billion from international tourism receipts, which made up four percent of the country’s gross domestic product that year.
At the same time, a total of 3.5 million tourism-related jobs were created in 2007. Gordon foresees that the number of tourism-related jobs will increase to 4.2 million by 2017.
In his message to ITF-PLA delegates, Gordon said that with the passing of the Tourism Act of 2008 more tourism-related jobs will open.
“Once made into a law, the Tourism Act will provide a strong backbone for the industry, which generates millions of new jobs and billions of dollars in foreign exchange every year,” Gordon said. (Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Dumaguete. (October 23, 2008 issue)
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