24/03/2024
Worth noting….
After dozens of trips across Asia, sad to say, I have to agree with this.
We as a country will really need to improve particularly in terms of regional tourism competitiveness.
I've been to many Thai islands and quite a few beaches in Vietnam and bihira talaga nila maabot ang level ng sand and beach natin. Sa buong Asean nasa atin talaga ang bulk ng superlative beaches.
But when looking at tourism stats, nahuhuli na talaga tayo.
We may have an increase in tourist numbers pero yung kanila, exponential increase and Malaysia has now I think 30M tourists.
We are at the level of Cambodia with 5.4M but sa totoo lang I feel we can do so much more. Mas madami tayong flights than then and we have lots of airports.
Whenever I am with European tourists in Asia during day tours, they know of the Philippines pero it's much easier daw to ask other Europeans about Thailand and Vietnam than Philippines kasi madami daw pumupunta. Positive reinforcement pa tuloy sila.
Yes, medyo dehado tayo kasi archipelago, and so it's more difficult mag tuhog ng itinerary, not to mention more expensive kasi lipad ka forever and if ferry naman, ang tagal.
Another thing I noticed that adds to the allure of Vietnam, Thailand and Indo are the cheap cost of hotels. Talagang 1000 lang in the provinces for places with pool AND breakfast. Maybe mas mahal ang raw materials here kasi we don't make them pero this is what we have and so we have to make do with it. Maybe we can help tourists in some other way.
Top of my head are a few options:
1. Maybe have volunteer tour guides in Manila. I noticed very few tourists spend time in Manila. Baka when we have tour guides subsidised by the LGU or the DOT mas feeling safe and mas mag enjoy ang tourists to stay longer in the capital.
2. Maybe incentivize the domestic tourists. Nuong pandemic sa Japan, they gave transport and hotel coupons sa locals nila. Here baka pwede mag collab ang LGU with buses and ferries parang the way credit cards collaborate with restaurants para ma enganyo ang mga tourists umalis.
3. Flyer passes sa domestic network para tourists can save on flight costs. Yung tipong unli flight for let's say two weeks. Parang JR pass ng Japan na pwedeng unli train rides for one week
4. Pa raffle sa arrivals. Kahit mura lang. Yung sa Taiwan kasi 8000 pesos worth of money sa card ang prize pero kahit murang prizes like sim card. Then consolation prize dried mangoes, ma publicise lang tayo. Kasi rather than advertise in Paris eh parang ang mura lang ng ganito and people love receiving thoughtful prizes. Plus when they rave sa social media eh di win!
5. Food crawl tours ng Manila. Pero mababa ang cost, and sakay aa jeep in betwen. Kasi kung 3000 pesos baka hindi din pansinin. Ganito din lang ang ginagawa sa Vietnam, and tayo may jeep ride pa which is a thrill and a very local experience.
6. Stay 3 nights, 4th night free. Then maybe yung 4th night, subsidised na ng LGU. Or maybe 5th night? You get the idea hehe
7. Sana ma enforce ang VAT refund for tourists. Yung easy and convenient refund na headache free for departing tourists. Or better yet baka pwede may vat refund kiosks sa major malls?
8. Maybe transport companies can help tourists like less 100 pesos yung ferry from bohol to cebu if you post a photo of yourself inside the boat on social media. That's like almost free advertising for the companies!
9. Incentives for return visitors, meron na ba nito? Hehe. Like maybe free one night in Manila for return tourists to Philippines na mag stay ng more than two weeks? Something like that.
Kaunti lang ito ha and I don't even know If these are feasible for the country as I'm not even in the tourism sector, but may puhunan talaga dapat na kailangan. Lahat naman ng governments abroad have also spent to revive their tourism sector.
World class ang tourist attractions natin, sa totoo lang. We can get triple the number of tourists lalo na na kung kaya ng iba, kaya din natin.
- TMD
Screenshot: article originally from Bilyonaryo, published March 10, 2024.
