Philippine tourism plays a formidable and even essential role in national development. And yet, so much of its potential remains untapped and so many resources underutilized.
A conversation with Department of Tourism Secretary Christina G. Frasco guided our understanding on how vital our tourism industry is, what it presently contributes, and how a strategy, a blueprint, has been set in motion to bring it further to realizing its true potential.
It is not a short term plan, but one that acknowledges there are ‘low-hanging fruits’ to take advantage of while keeping a steady eye on the long term. It’s about vision, working with the other government agencies, and understanding that speed bumps and delays will likely happen, but shouldn’t frustrate or create a disruption in the overall aim.
Conducting an interview with Department of Tourism Secretary Christina G. Frasco is like being in a court of law and sitting in on the closing arguments of a formidable defense attorney. She’s concise, anticipates a counter-argument, is persuasive, makes a lot of sense, and is fully prepared.
It’s good to recall that the tourism secretary was a two-term mayor of Liloan, taught law at the University of San Carlos, and practiced international arbitration and commercial litigation for a decade before entering public service. Recently, she received her third highest Cabinet Official Job Performance Ranking conducted by the RP Mission and Development Foundation, getting 92.7 percent for the third quarter of 2024.
To fully appreciate what is at stake under this ‘tourism umbrella’, she explained: “When we were counting those directly employed in our hotels and resorts all over the country, we counted 6.2 million jobs, representing 12.9 percent of the national workforce. But the good news is that NEDA and the PSA informed us that global metrics used by the WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council) included the value chain directly contributing to tourism in a country, such as travel agencies, tour operators, tour transport suppliers. And when you add those, it comes out to 16 million Filipinos, or 34 percent of the workforce. So that’s how many people are depending on tourism for their livelihood!”
“So beyond the hard infrastructure we will talk about later, there’s also a responsibility to develop soft skills, to fortify the Filipino brand of service excellence. We’ve created modules that are offered at the government agency and LGU (local government unit) level to improve tourism education. TESDA is a valuable partner here, and one offshoot is the program of scholarships we offer migrant workers and returning OFW’s to develop new skills. A very popular one is the one centered on culinary training.”
“With the DOLE and DSWD, we’ve mounted Trabajo Turismo Job Fairs. In Cebu, we have a pilot project of Alternative Tourism Training, the rationale being that we’re visited so often by natural calamities, what can these people in the tourism industry turn to when the visitors aren’t arriving - whether foreign or domestic visitors. It’s also given us a deeper appreciation of our tourism frontliners, and how precarious their situation can be.”
Secretary Frasco explained that the 7.7 million visitors projected for 2024 includes around two million coming from China. For several reasons, that now requires recalibrating. We had 5.45 million visitors last year, and we’ve reached 5.2 million by Nov. 26, 2024. Being conservative, they’re now projecting some 5.8 million for the year. And this is where Sec. Frasco would like us to measure success not just via number of visitors, but also by calculating visitor receipts and job creation.
For job creation, visitor receipts, and pushing for quality tourism, Sec. Frasco has very encouraging things to impart. “From an average of nine-night stay per visitor in 2023, we’re tracking an improved 11.2-night stay this year. This makes us one of the quality destinations in the region. Average spend of our visitors is $126 per day, which is better than say, Thailand, at $87 a day.”
She said “99 percent of our visitors arrive via our air terminals, whereas so many of our ASEAN neighbors have visitors coming overland, via border crossings in vehicles. So that’s a unique challenge we have to face. South Korea, the USA, and Japan are the top three now in terms of where visitors are arriving from. So the plan is to be more aggressive with the tour operators, increase the number of flights.”
“For the USA, PAL has introduced its flights to Seattle, while United Airlines will develop more San Francisco-Manila, and USA-Japan-Cebu flights. We’re also looking at visitors from Europe, and the Middle East for next year.”
“In the case of the Middle East, there is so much potential. We plan to increase our presence in the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, and prepare with halal food options and Muslim-friendly beaches. The beaches is something we’re already developing with the Megaworld group in Boracay.”
Secretary Frasco is very much encouraged by what transpired during the recent hosting of the Seatrade Cruise Conference 2024 in Manila. Commitments to make Philippine ports of call up to 2026 were firmly made. The visa waiver for cruise ship passengers was seen by the big cruise operators as a strong sign from the Philippines to develop this aspect of tourism.
There’s the matter of how quickly we can rise to the challenge of port and terminal infrastructure, as we develop new ports of call. The country can aim to be a cruise destination hub; and this will require a modern terminal designed for passengers. Most of our present ports are designed for cargo.
Or, tourism observers have suggested that we can promote destinations with jetty port facilities, where the giant cruise ships employ smaller vessels to pick up their passengers, and bring them to the small port facility.
Sec. Frasco also discussed the Tourism Champion Challenge the DOT organized. Bolinao, Pangasinan emerged as a stirring example of a ‘bottoms up’ approach, with the LGU and stakeholders initiating the creation of a sustainable tourism attraction. It’s Bolinao’s Legacy of the Sea, with Silaki Island and the UP Marine Science Institute collaborating to highlight the giant clams, and marine conservation in the area.
Cruise destination, beach destination, dive destination, medical tourism, gastronomy tourism, culture and the arts, and the warm inviting smile of the Filipino. There is so much our country can offer, with our hospitality and service excellence as proven qualities. Yet records show that that the country lags behind several of its ASEAN neighbors in attracting visitors.
The challenge remains – improving job creation, and attracting more visitors to visit, whether by air or sea.
There’s still so much to aim for, and we have Secretary Frasco, with a clear vision firmly in charge and expending all efforts to make it happen.