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MANILA, Philippines – President Benigno Aquino III hailed his administration’s pocket open skies policy and infrastructure projects as instrumental to attracting more tourists to the Philippines.
Aquino delivered a progress report on government’s efforts to boost tourism during a speech before participants of the 7th Consuls-General and Tourism Directors Tour in Malacañang on Friday, July 13.
The President said the Philippines welcomed over 1.8 million tourists in the first 5 months of 2012, more than half of the yearly average of 3 million arrivals.
“Our Pocket Open Skies Policy has already generated almost a 15% increase in incoming and outgoing flights to the Philippines from January to June of this year. This has led to a similar increase in inbound and outbound passenger traffic growth for both international and domestic travels,” Aquino said.
Aquino also highlighted planned and ongoing infrastructure projects to improve services and facilities for tourists:
- Planned construction of new Bohol Airport in Panglao, Legaspi Airport in Daraga and Laguindingan Airport in Misamis Oriental “in a few years”
- Upgrading of Mactan Cebu International Airport, the Puerto Princesa Airport in Palawan and others
- Construction of the Connector for the North Luzon and South Luzon Expressways by 2015
- Proposed nautical highway to bring down travel time from Luzon to Mindanao from the current 3 days to 15 hours
The Chief Executive said the Department of Public Works and Highways allocated P9.4 billion in 2011 and 2012 for the construction, rehabilitation and improvement of roads leading to tourist destinations.
Aquino also cited the inauguration of the Puerto Princesa Underground River in Palawan as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature last April.
“We didn’t reinvent the wheel here; we just relied on a simple strategy: to make it easier and more fun for tourists to come to the Philippines.”
Lagging behind Asian neighbors
The Philippines has been lagging behind its Asian neighbors in tourist arrivals. In 2011, the country had 3.7 million tourist arrivals, a far cry from Thailand which had 14 million and Malaysia with 22 million.
A World Economic Forum (WEF) report released in May said the Philippines remains one of the least competitive countries in travel and tourism in Southeast Asia.
The WEF ranked the Philippines 7th out of 8 Southeast Asian countries, ahead only of Cambodia. It trailed behind Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Indonesia and Vietnam.
The report said the Philippines is weak in business environment and infrastructure.
Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez said, “The figures are not consistent with the continuous growth of foreign tourist arrivals. Be that as it may, we are determined to improve country competitiveness in all aspects.”
The Aquino government is targeting at least 4.2 million tourist arrivals for 2012, and 10 million tourist arrivals by 2016.
Early this year, the Philippine Department of Tourism launched a new tourism campaign using the slogan, “It’s more fun in the Philippines” capitalizing on Filipinos’ social media savvy.
As part of the campaign, government is spending on tourism ads in global TV channels like CNN. – Rappler.com
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