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.
1 comment:
Like that Saudi Arebia receives millions of tourist every year due to cheap umrah tickets every Muslim is willing to perform umrah soon as well as it possible.
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