Has Philippine Tourism Really Hit a “Milestone” or a Wall?

Posted by BongV on Jan 23, 2013 in Economy, Featured | 2 comments

According to the Philippine tourism authorities, “A new milestone for Philippine tourism was achieved as arrivals to the country reached 4,272,811 visitors which recorded a 9.07% increase from the 3,917,454 tourists who came in 2011. It was the first time that the country passed the 4 millionth arrivals”.

The Aquino spin machine was quick to proclaim this as another achievement of Aquino. But is the 4 million visitors really a milestone? What really is the big picture?

We need to remember that the Philippines is part of the ASEAN – where there are destinations other than the Philippines.

Since the other countries, namely Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand have yet to publish their year-end figures, we will have to use the tourism arrival figures released during the 1st half of 2012. I will go out on a limb to assert that the year-end figures will be consistent with the distribution of the 1st semester.

However, I will still present the year-end figures for those countries which have released their data. A partial list is provided below:

Thailand – 21 million

Indonesia – 8 million

Philippines – 4 million

For the first half of 2012, the tourism arrivals are shown below:

Singapore – 7 million

Thailand – 10.5 million

Indonesia – 4.6 million

Malaysia – 11.6 million

Philippines – 2.1 million

Vietnam – 3.8 million

I wonder how the Philippine numbers comprise a “milestone”?

I guess being last, as in 5% of all tourism arrivals of the ASEAN-6 during the 1st half of 2012 – is a “milestone” of continuously being LAST!

These numbers remind me of the Aquino administration boasting about the “impressive growth” of FDI in 2012. The method of course which will yield the “impressive” will just compare the Philippines’ performance for the current year – against the performance for the current year. The big picture however is that, the Philippines FDI was only 2% of all FDI that went to the ASEAN 6.

Singapore – $27.4

Thailand – $5.6

Indonesia – $8.2

Malaysia – $4.4

Philippines – $0.9

Vietnam – $6.4

The “bright” side is – if compared the “mostly not free” economies (aka the socialist economies) only – the Philippines is doing well. But why the hell would you compare yourself to the losers – when you should be benchmarking yourself against the winners?

Just don’t compare the Philippines investment and/or tourism arrivals with other countries which are “mostly free” – unless the comparison involves a bimbo este beauty queen competition, a boxing competition, or an American Idol competition where the Filipinos try so hard to look for a contestant who happens to have Filipino heritage (even if they were not born nor raised in the Philippines).

The Philippines needs to do more than push empty slogans. The DOT and its crony tour operators don’t know jacksh*t. Filipinos need to start listening to customers. For instance, the comment of a well travelled AP reader contains gems of wisdom for improving the Philippine travel experience

I made the mistake of visiting the PI on vacation. I fell for their propaganda … Malaysia is soooo much nicer! Fruit, veggies, gasoline – half the cost!

Roads are nice, very little poverty, no begging or homeless kids (something that really saddens me) and no women so destitute and desperate asking me my marital status. Here I can stay 90 days and there is no VAT, just a 6 % service charge in restaurants. In PI just 21 days and 12% VAT on all items.

Yes, you can get a visa extension in PI for 100 dollars a month but I’ll pay a 100 dollars a month not to go back to that filthy dangerous expensive smoke belching inferno of a country!

The only thing in Malaysia thats $ is the booze and cigs but I dont drink or smoke so I could care less. Come visit Malaysia you may like it , but then again dont ask me just ask the millions of Filipinos who are here!

Foreign investors (who are severely restricted from investing in the Philippines) can help come up with new tourism packages and facilities which can attract traffic. Foreign nationals have an excellent understanding of what foreign tourists are looking for in terms of customer service, accommodations, and packaging of attractions which help generate repeat business.

So what milestone is Aquino talking about here – a milestone of consistently being last in investments and tourism arrivals among the ASEAN-6.