To better prepare and promote the country for full reopening of tourist destinations, the Department of Tourism is working with LGUs and the national government for better tourism infrastructure.
Tourism Secretary Ma. Esperanza Christina Garcia-Frasco said the department should not focus solely on promoting the country’s must-see places but must deal with issues that have long set back its growth and prevented it from competing with neighbors in Southeast Asia.
She assured Congress that DoT is working with different agencies in crafting a “whole of government” approach to address the inadequate infrastructure, which have prevented it from aggressively marketing the tourist destinations in the country.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr., Commission on Appointments majority floor leader, commended Frasco for baring plans to team up with local government units (LGUs) and the private sector in boosting tourism nationwide. He told her that one priority action for this sector is building enough and better infrastructure across the country to ensure seamless travel from Manila to our tourist spots, especially those in remote places, said Business Mirro.
While an airport is the first and last place that a foreigner sees in a country, the DOT has no say whatsoever how airports are run as these are under the supervision of the Department of Transportation.
Infra is key
Villafuerte recalled that in the allocation for the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Bayanihan 2 law) under the national budget, he had proposed P10-billion outlay for tourism infrastructure under the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority but this was not included in the final version of the 2022 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
Infrastructure is really the key to tourism development. He pointed out that the beaches of Thailand, Malaysia and Malaysia are more popular destinations even if the Philippines’s are better, because they have the infrastructure going to these places.
He said the Philippines has better beaches than Phuket Island in Thailand, for example, but the latter is a relatively more popular destination for foreign tourists, partly because of its better infrastructure. Phuket’s airport alone is even bigger than our No. 1 gateway, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), he added.
“What does Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia have that we don’t? In terms of beauty, I think our beaches are much better. But we have to admit their infrastructure is much better than ours. When you land in Thailand, when you land in Malaysia, you can go to any destination with seamless travel,” he said.
“Here if you land in the airport and you want to go to Boracay, Bukidnon or Bicol there is no linkage. I know you (Frasco) are very gung-ho on promoting tourism but I know your hands are tied in terms of infrastructure. For example, you want to develop a site, how will you fund that,” Villafuerte said.
Tourism fund
Frasco said she has consulted the heads of other agencies such as the DOTr, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the Department of Transportation (DOTr), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of of Health (DOH) that have respective jurisdictions over concerns that affect the tourism business.
In the absence of an infrastructure development budget in her department, she has pushed for the establishment of a tourism infrastructure development fund so the DOT can build facilities that cannot be put up by other agencies, she added.
“In addition to this, we have also already presented to the DOTr all of our suggestions as far as the changes to the airport; notwithstanding the fact that the infrastructure and gateway access are not within the primary review of the DOT,” she said.
“We fully recognize their importance as far as the success of the DOT, and that is why the effort on my part has been to reach out to these government agencies and to work closely with them.”
Because peace and security are essential components of tourism, she said she has also reached out to the
DILG and proposed a longer tour of duty for the tourist police who have been trained by the DOT “to ensure continuity of service,” assignment of more tourist police in key destinations and training of barangay tanods to augment the tourist police force.
Innovative measures
Villafurte said he hopes that Frasco would be able to bring innovative measures to revitalize the tourism industry, and focus on modernizing tourism-related infrastructure leading to lesser-known must-see destinations across the country.
Citing CamSur as an example, he said the DOT named the province as the country’s Number-1 tourist destination in 2010 after the provincial government—on Villafuerte’s watch as governor—had aggressively pushed the development and promotion of faraway Caramoan Island as an ecotourism haven and the CamSur Watersports Complex (CWC) as a globally known hub for extreme sports events.
“It was a purely local government initiative,” he said of CamSur’s rise as a top must-see place in the country. “So, we are hopeful that Frasco could—and would—deliver on her plan for the DOT to extend full support to the development of lesser known and remote tourist spots.”
He said that no matter how good certain localities are for tourism, it would be difficult for local and foreign visitors to check out these sites without the necessary infrastructure like roads to go there, plus viewing decks, souvenir shops, lounges and rest rooms with free wifi along the way to these places.
“Spending on infrastructure in tourism, which is one of the domestic sectors worst hit by the two-year Covid-19 crisis, would hopefully reverse the fiasco committed by our tourism officials in prioritizing state rehabilitation funds for soft loans to tourism-related establishments instead of for building infra for tourism services in preparation for the complete reopening of our tourist destinations for both domestic and foreign tourists,” Villafuerte said.
Tags: #DoT, #investmentsinitourisminfra