PHL tourism: Approaching 2011 from another angle
MELAY LAPEÑA, GMANews.TV
01/05/2011 | 08:03 PM
The Philippines is one of Lonely Planet's Top 10 best value destinations for 2011, nearly replacing Thailand as the go-to spot for the best cheap beaches "for those who desire nothing more than to find great, undiscovered beaches, surf the odd wave and eat unique, distinctive food for under $20 a day."
According to travel guide publisher Lonely Planet, the ideal island hopping destinations are those in the Zambales Coast northwest of the country and the Bacuit Archipelago via El Nido in Palawan.
With the country still reeling from a string of unfortunate incidents last year, such commendations from Lonely Planet, which is 75 percent owned by BBC Worldwide, gives Philippine tourism a much needed boost.
Led by Secretary Alberto Lim, the Department of Tourism is still recovering from the Aug. 23 hostage tragedy, the Pilipinas Kay Ganda fiasco, and the negative travel advisories by six nations.
As 2010 and those incidents fade from memory, the DOT has taken on an optimistic stand and a different tact this year.
The department said more than 2.84 million tourists arrived in the country in January-October — the latest numbers available — up 15.85 percent in the same 2009 period.
Beyond sun and sea destinations
The approach to tourism this year veers off Lonely Planet’s focus on island life, as the DOT intends to zero in on cultural travel spots rather than the many white-sand beaches that dot the country's 7,000 plus islands.
"This year we are going beyond the sun and sea destinations. We want to highlight our cultural and heritage sites as well as health and wellness destinations," said Lim, former president of Ten Knots Development Corp., the owner and manager of El Nido resorts.
The key is quality, according to the former high-end resort developer.
“Unbridled tourism is also bad because the environment suffers. So, we are very careful about the type of tourism we want. The people who come for culture, history and nature, maybe we can receive them," he said in a statement.
While attractions like Boracay are overdeveloped, many beautiful artifacts are deteriorating in warehouses that "We should get museums in the old style operating in the old city," Lim said.
Also a former executive director of The Makati Business Club, Lim plans to double the country’s tourism revenues in six years by attracting high-paying tourists instead of the mass-market as instituted by other Southeast Asian countries.
Focus is also being eyed on developing nature tourism, a niche market that Philippine tourism officials think has a lot of potential.
Lim said he will support the first Malasimbo Arts and Music Festival next month in Puerto Galera.
Festival tickets are expensive and a portion of the proceeds will fund reforestation along the famous Baclayan Trail, a project that may give the indigenous Mangyans livelihood activities.
"This event will be a worthy example of how the private and public sectors can work together to bring about sustainable development and alleviation of poverty in our country," said Lim.
Blue, open skies ahead
A former board member of the Civil Aeronautics Board, Lim co-founded the Freedom to Fly Coalition whose main advocacy is open-skies policy to promote economic development. “Access creates investments, investments create hotel facilities and that will also lower prices," according to the tourism secretary.
His stand has elicited the ire of other stakeholders.
Travel Cooperative of the Philippines chairman Robert Lim Joseph has accused Lim of prioritizing foreign interests in advocating an "unlimited" open skies policy.
Joseph has opposed Lim's appointment as tourism chief, citing the Pilipinas Kay Ganda campaign to attract tourists that ended in a flop.
Malacañang is set to issue this week an executive order (EO) on President Benigno Aquino III's "pocket open skies policy," reaffirming EO 219 issued in 1995 by then President Fidel V. Ramos to boost tourism and investments with a more liberal international aviation policy.
Public-private partnership
A priority of the Aquino administration is the public-private partnership (PPP) initiative with many projects on infrastructure development supporting travel and tourism.
Lim said such projects will help increase tourist arrivals from 3 million a year to 6 million by 2013.
But former Finance Secretary Roberto de Ocampo earlier countered that the effects of PPP projects on tourism and agribusiness would only be felt two years from now. “As of the moment, these projects are still in their early stages. We can barely say [that] their effects will be felt too soon," he said.
Lim also plans to refocus the department’s budget to product development from marketing and promotion.
“We need to develop first-rate products and come up with impeccable services to draw more tourists. We have to be more visible by generating very good projects and we should deliver what we promised," Lim said. — VS, GMANews.TV
According to travel guide publisher Lonely Planet, the ideal island hopping destinations are those in the Zambales Coast northwest of the country and the Bacuit Archipelago via El Nido in Palawan.
With the country still reeling from a string of unfortunate incidents last year, such commendations from Lonely Planet, which is 75 percent owned by BBC Worldwide, gives Philippine tourism a much needed boost.
Led by Secretary Alberto Lim, the Department of Tourism is still recovering from the Aug. 23 hostage tragedy, the Pilipinas Kay Ganda fiasco, and the negative travel advisories by six nations.
As 2010 and those incidents fade from memory, the DOT has taken on an optimistic stand and a different tact this year.
The department said more than 2.84 million tourists arrived in the country in January-October — the latest numbers available — up 15.85 percent in the same 2009 period.
Beyond sun and sea destinations
The approach to tourism this year veers off Lonely Planet’s focus on island life, as the DOT intends to zero in on cultural travel spots rather than the many white-sand beaches that dot the country's 7,000 plus islands.
"This year we are going beyond the sun and sea destinations. We want to highlight our cultural and heritage sites as well as health and wellness destinations," said Lim, former president of Ten Knots Development Corp., the owner and manager of El Nido resorts.
The key is quality, according to the former high-end resort developer.
“Unbridled tourism is also bad because the environment suffers. So, we are very careful about the type of tourism we want. The people who come for culture, history and nature, maybe we can receive them," he said in a statement.
While attractions like Boracay are overdeveloped, many beautiful artifacts are deteriorating in warehouses that "We should get museums in the old style operating in the old city," Lim said.
Also a former executive director of The Makati Business Club, Lim plans to double the country’s tourism revenues in six years by attracting high-paying tourists instead of the mass-market as instituted by other Southeast Asian countries.
Focus is also being eyed on developing nature tourism, a niche market that Philippine tourism officials think has a lot of potential.
Lim said he will support the first Malasimbo Arts and Music Festival next month in Puerto Galera.
Festival tickets are expensive and a portion of the proceeds will fund reforestation along the famous Baclayan Trail, a project that may give the indigenous Mangyans livelihood activities.
"This event will be a worthy example of how the private and public sectors can work together to bring about sustainable development and alleviation of poverty in our country," said Lim.
Blue, open skies ahead
A former board member of the Civil Aeronautics Board, Lim co-founded the Freedom to Fly Coalition whose main advocacy is open-skies policy to promote economic development. “Access creates investments, investments create hotel facilities and that will also lower prices," according to the tourism secretary.
His stand has elicited the ire of other stakeholders.
Travel Cooperative of the Philippines chairman Robert Lim Joseph has accused Lim of prioritizing foreign interests in advocating an "unlimited" open skies policy.
Joseph has opposed Lim's appointment as tourism chief, citing the Pilipinas Kay Ganda campaign to attract tourists that ended in a flop.
Malacañang is set to issue this week an executive order (EO) on President Benigno Aquino III's "pocket open skies policy," reaffirming EO 219 issued in 1995 by then President Fidel V. Ramos to boost tourism and investments with a more liberal international aviation policy.
Public-private partnership
A priority of the Aquino administration is the public-private partnership (PPP) initiative with many projects on infrastructure development supporting travel and tourism.
Lim said such projects will help increase tourist arrivals from 3 million a year to 6 million by 2013.
But former Finance Secretary Roberto de Ocampo earlier countered that the effects of PPP projects on tourism and agribusiness would only be felt two years from now. “As of the moment, these projects are still in their early stages. We can barely say [that] their effects will be felt too soon," he said.
Lim also plans to refocus the department’s budget to product development from marketing and promotion.
“We need to develop first-rate products and come up with impeccable services to draw more tourists. We have to be more visible by generating very good projects and we should deliver what we promised," Lim said. — VS, GMANews.TV
No comments:
Post a Comment