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SINGAPORE – When Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. boldly declared that our neighbors are getting worried about what we are about to unleash, we must have all dismissed it as so much bravado in lieu of good news. But one tourism minister supposedly paid Mon J a visit to get more details and it turns out Mon wants to use our millions of on-line netizens and OFWs to promote visits to the Philippines.
It may take a lot more than bloggers and Pinoy Facebook friends to get the job done without the significant budgets our neighbors have. I had a chance to take a look at Malaysia last weekend from the vantage point of someone coming in by land from Singapore. Our son who works in this city state drove me and my wife across the causeway to Malaysia for an overnight visit in historic Malacca.
I had been to Malacca some years ago courtesy of a Malaysian government program for ASEAN journalists and we drove down from Kuala Lumpur. This time we drove up from Singapore on excellent world class expressways. If the Malaysian company now managing our South Luzon Expressway fixed it up to the quality and beauty of what I saw and experienced, that would be a definite plus that should help justify their increased tolls.
Malaysia’s tourism visitor numbers are impressive. Last year, they had 24.6 million, about half of which are Singapore residents who cross over to shop and load gas too. A million and a half were Thais, two and half million were Indonesians, about half a million Pinoys and over half a million Australians. Interestingly, they have a little over a million Chinese visitors, which proves again our contention that China is where Mon J should concentrate his promotions program.
Crossing over to Johore from Singapore was a lot easier this year than it was last year when we crossed over to catch a budget Air Asia flight in Senai for Penang. Immigration officials on both sides of the causeway were fairly efficient. I guess it also helped that last weekend was an ordinary one and not a long holiday weekend like last year when it took us over an hour to cross.
The drive was also quite comfortable and the Malaysians have done great in beautifying the expressway with flowers and ornamental greeneries in the center dividers and on the sides. But given the volume of foreigners using the expressway, a country as serious about tourism as Malaysia is could have done more to include English translations.
Malacca, a small port in a vital strait for international shipping, is apparently attracting more tourists than the entire Philippines. For the first time this year, Malacca is expected to receive as many as 10 million tourists compared with 8.9 million last year. The number of tourists has supposedly risen considerably since Malacca was declared a World Heritage Site in July 2008 with George Town in Penang. Given the heavy traffic of vehicles and tourist buses up to close to midnight, I can believe its claimed high visitor count.
Malacca was founded in the 15th century under the Malacca Sultanate and was subsequently taken by European powers. Malacca has always been popular as a weekend destination, particularly among tourists from Singapore.
Other than the chance to sample interesting cuisine influenced by different cultures in this former colonial crossroad, a tourist here takes time to visit the historic center of the city. A new heritage trail has been created to highlight some of the town’s most prominent architectural features during the Dutch colonial era of the 17th and 18th century.
The centerpiece of this historic center is Fortaleza D’Malacca or the A’Famosa fort first built by the Portuguese after their conquest of Malacca, and then later occupied by the Dutch. Much of the fort was destroyed by the British colonialists and thought lost forever until parts of the fort’s bastion was discovered a few years ago.
I thought our own walled city of Intramuros and Fort Santiago are far more interesting and impressive. But unlike us, the Malaysians seem to have a better appreciation of the value of their historic past. The Malaysian Federal Government has allocated funds for excavation and restoration of the colonial fort.
With only the foundations to work with, the restoration team, working under the supervision of the Culture, Arts and Heritage, has to rely heavily on historic documents, drawings, paintings, as well as consultation with experts familiar with the architecture of that era. From the looks of it, they seem to be doing a great job of it.
The historic center also hosts a variety of museums, a great idea for our own planners if and when they decide to do something great in Intramuros. The only thing that bothered me was the heavy traffic of vehicles allowed entry right into the historic center. They should probably just allow pedestrians to make a walking tour of the area more comfortable and safer.
A typical night market one finds in most Asian cities provides tourists something to do before or after eating dinner. In Malacca last weekend, the night market was just simply packed with people. A tiangge in Intramuros may prove to be a tourist attraction if we can manage it well so that it will be a safe and pleasant experience for all.
Of course it was raining and steaming hot in Malacca and not the most comfortable weather for exploring attractions. But the tourists seemed to be enjoying themselves in the restaurants, the sites and the riverboat ride. If we can fix up Fort Santiago so that a river ferry can take tourists on a cruise up the Pasig up to Malacañang, that would be a more interesting experience than Malacca’s riverboat cruise. Of course, let us help Gina Lopez clean up the Pasig River first.
I thought that perhaps we don’t really have to re-invent the wheel so to speak. Our neighbors who are now attracting all those millions of tourists have proven models we can adapt for our purposes. What we need is plain political will to see our tourist visitors climb up to ten million by 2016. Ten million is not an awesome number that is too ambitious for us. Malacca is hitting that number this year. We should take tourism as seriously as the Malaysians do.
Budget fare
One nice thing about having our son working in Singapore is the ease of visiting him in this era of budget fares. My wife loves to go through the websites of budget airlines flying from Manila to Singapore and that was how we managed to get a US$100 roundtrip ticket on Airphil Express. An additional P250 ensured we got the front row seats which made the flight more comfortable for me with my long legs.
I got the impression from our check in experience as well as the helpful cabin crew that Airphil Express is somewhat friendlier than Cebu Pacific. Maybe it is because they are number two trying to be number one. That was Cebu Pacific too in the early days when they were trying to beat Philippine Airlines. Maybe the awful experience of Dennis Garcia and the Hotdogs with Airphil Express ground crew in Bohol was a fluke Airphil execs must explain.
The other great thing about Airphil Express is that they use Changi’s Terminal 2, not the budget terminal Cebu Pacific uses. That means you have access to a greater number of shops while waiting for your airport pick-up or your flight to take off. They both use NAIA 3 and that is such a pleasure to use even in its unfinished state compared with NAIA 1. They also use the same Airbus A320. And the flight was just as packed, given the budget fares.
Seems like Freddy Herrera, Airphil’s VP for Marketing is giving Candice Iyog, VP Marketing of Cebu Pacific a stiff fight for market share. In the end, it is all about service and how they deal with passengers, specially those who do not appreciate the tough rules of budget airlines on check-in time and baggage allowances.
In the end, it is the public that benefits from such competition in terms of cheap fares and good service. Low cost carriers are indeed the way of the future. Hopefully my flight home this evening is as pleasant as the flight coming here a week ago.
Food for thought
Picked this up from someone in Facebook.
Everyone thinks that every girl’s dream is to find the perfect guy. In fact it is to eat without getting fat.
Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com. He is also on Twitter @boochanco
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