This is an article repost.
MANILA, Philippines—If the recent changes in the transportation department are an indication, the country’s ability to meet its lofty, but potentially attainable, goals in tourism will also slow down.
On August 12, 2011, Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim announced that he is leaving the post effective end of the month. He said that the demands of the job, particularly the traveling part of it, have affected his family. His main detractors would later admit that he has been efficient on the job but has poor interpersonal skills.
Lim’s exit follows that of Jose “Ping” de Jesus who left the transportation portfolio in June. When Mar Roxas, the defeated running mate of President Aquino in the 2010 polls, took over, Roxas put a break on all pending contracts, including the first public-private-partnership project under the Aquino administration that was due to be bidded out in about a week. He cited the need to review them.
Understandably, a learning curve, short or otherwise, awaits the replacement of Lim, too.
What exactly is the incoming tourism secretary up against?
The politics among the tourism stakeholders, for one.
The failure of the state-run aviation body to extract itself away from the US’s and EU’s separate lists of destinations with unsafe regulation, for another. The EU blacklist restricts travel agents from including Philippines in their menu of destinations, largely through exclusion in travel insurance coverage.
Dealing with these blacklists is under the purview of the transportation, not the tourism, secretary, but it highlights how the Philippines as a tourism product is highly dependent on flights that ferry passengers to the archipelago.
Almost all foreign tourists fly to Manila or Cebu before they can bask under the tropical sun in a pristine beach in one of our over 7,100 islands.
Still, the upside for tourism potentials in the Philippines is high, given our current paltry share in the millions of tourists that flock to Asia every year.
In 2010, despite the infamous Manila hostage crisis and the travel advisories issued by some governments concerned about the security situation in some parts of the country, 3.45 million foreign travelers visited the country, a 19.38% increase from 2.89 million the year before.
But a Southeast Asian country with 3.45 million foreign travelers a year pales in comparison with the successes of its neighbors.
• Malaysia 24.6 million
• Thailand 15.94 million
• Singapore 11.64 million
• Indonesia 6.45 million (2009)
• Vietnam 5.05 million
• Cambodia 2.51 million
• Laos 2.01 million (2009)
• Myanmar 0.31 million
• Brunei 0.16 million (2009)
The target by 2016, when President Aquino steps down, is to have 6.3 million foreign tourists visiting (plus 32 million domestic travelers generating over 5 million jobs by 2016).
Lim’s successor must find a way through the bureaucratic and political mazes to achieve these targets, which are almost double the current ones.
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By: Newsbreak
Source: newsbreak.ph, Aug. 15, 2011
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