PHILIPPINES: Safety And Security Cause Decline To Philippine Tourism

Safety and security issues have resulted in the decline of the Philippines’ ranking in the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report.

The country dropped five notches in the latest edition of the bi-annual Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report, which measures how “tourism-friendly” the economies are.

The Philippines ranked 79th out of 136 countries in this year’s report, compared to placing 74th out of 141 economies in 2015.

The country’s tourism attractiveness was dragged down by safety and security concerns, poor ground and port infrastructure and lackluster environment policy.

Among the nine Southeast Asian countries measured in the report, the Philippines ranked third to last, ahead only of Laos (94th) and Cambodia (101st).

Spain, France and Germany were the top three most tourism-friendly destinations in the world, based on the report. They were followed by Japan at 4th and the United Kingdom at 5th.

Completing the top 10 are the United States, Australia, Italy, Canada and Switzerland.

The 2017 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report measured each economy’s attractiveness through 14 pillars, with each having its own sub-pillars.

The country’s most enticing aspects proved to be its price competitiveness and natural resources, being ranked 22nd and 37th globally, respectively.

The price competitiveness pillar is composed of ticket taxes, airport charges, hotel price index, purchasing power parity and fuel price levels, while the natural resources pillar is composed of the number of World Heritage natural sites, total known species, total protected areas, natural tourism digital demand and attractiveness of natural assets.

Other dimensions where the Philippines performed well are in human resources and labor market (50th), prioritization of travel and tourism (53rd) and business cultural resources and business travel (60th),

“The travel and tourism sector continues to develop on the back of the country’s rich natural resources and high price competitiveness, and arrivals have continued to grow so far,” the WEF report said.

“Yet this country attains a lower competitiveness performance this year due to a more restrictive visa policy that reduces its openness performance (60th), a reduction of the government budget dedicated to the development of the travel and tourism sector by almost half and reduced efficiency of ground transport (107th, losing 14 places),” it added.

The WEF said these factors may not have their full effect yet and may reduce tourism activity in the future.

“In addition, security concerns remain high (126th) and diminished protection of property rights, less effective judicial system and stricter rules on FDI (foreign direct investment) have reduced the conduciveness of the business environment (82nd),” the report stated.

The safety and security pillar was measured based on reliability of police services, business costs of crime and violence, index of terrorism of incidence, business costs of terrorism and homicide rate.

“At the same time, environmental policy has improved but remains low (118th), risking to undermine natural resources, the main asset for attracting tourists in the country. Although the Philippines’ travel and tourism potential remains high, there are several areas where policy interventions could help to regain competitiveness,” the report said.

According to the WEF, research has shown that for every 30 new tourists to a destination, one new job is created, making the travel and tourism industry a tremendous employment generator.

“To reach their potential, the majority of countries still have more to do, from enhancing security, promoting their cultural heritage, building their infrastructure and creating stronger visa policies,” WEF’s Community Lead of the Aviation, Travel and Tourism Industries Tiffany Misrahi said.

PHILIPPINES: Manny Pacquiao To Attract Foreign Tourists To The Philippines

It's more fun in the Philippines—and it will soon be up to boxing icon and lawmaker Manny Pacquiao to prove it to foreign tourists.

The House Committee on Tourism on Thursday approved a proposal to designate the boxer-senator as spokesperson for the Department of Tourism's (DOT) upcoming campaign to promote Philippine attractions here and abroad.

"Senator Pacquiao's international stature is a big boost to the tourism industry of the country. His endorsement would create a lot of impact, especially in the social media," said 1-PACMAN Representative Enrico Pineda in a statement.

Pineda earlier suggested Pacquiao as tourism ambassador, citing his international popularity, and the possibility that Pacquiao might lend his services to the DOT for free.

The decision to designate Pacquiao as the country's endorser was one of several issues discussed regarding the plans and programs of DOT, Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), and Tourism Promotions Board (TPB).

In November, the DOT said it will spend P650 million to revise and "upscale" in 2017 the "It's More Fun in the Philippines" campaign, which started in 2012, as it allegedly failed to generate enough visitor arrivals.

Advertising and marketing firm McCann Worldgroup, which won the bidding for the project, will handle the conceptualization and implementation of the new campaign Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo said.

"The P650 million is not only for the tag line itself; that includes all the media placements all over the world," DOT Undersecretary Kat de Castro said.

According to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group, data from DOT showed that the number of visitors to the country consistently increased from January 2012 to December 2015, reaching 5,360,682 visitors in 2015.

In 2016, the DOT's latest data from January to August showed that the country welcomed at least 4.04 million tourists, 12.59 percent (452,011) higher than the number of tourists received in the same period in 2015.

PHILIPPINES: Philippines’ Tourism Sector Bullish On 2015 Asean Integration

The Philippines’ tourism area is getting up to speed with its neighbors and is more hopeful on its prospects with the ASEAN incorporation moving into full swing by 2015, tourism authorities said on Friday.

“We are truly getting up to speed as far as institutionalization in the tourism business. We must be at standard with the abilities of our ASEAN neighbors,” said Cesar Cruz, president of the Philippine Tour Operators’ Association (Philtoa) which heads a three-day travel exchange article called the Philippine Travel Mart from Sept 5 to Sept. 7.

The Philippine Travel Mart, where explorers can discover travel and occasion bundles and aerial shuttle tickets on special, is commending its 25th celebration in the not so distant future.

The vision of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) joining which tries to make a solitary business and generation base through the free stream of products, administrations and subsidizes by 2015 is clear amid the travel deal held at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

Separated from the nation’s best and rising traveler ends of the line, a few goals in other ASEAN nations were likewise introduced to prospective explorers.

As a feature of the Philtoa’s backing for the ASEAN mix endeavors, it introduced explorers bundles it called “twinnings” where they can pick one of their most loved Philippine goals and pair this with an alternate end of the line in an alternate ASEAN nation.

“They can pick Boracay and Bali or Cebu and Singapore,” Cruz said in a meeting. This, he said, their gathering is doing in backing of the thought of the “borderless” travel.

Anyway Cruz sees a few issues once the ASEAN incorporation goes on full swing before the end of 2015.

“With our passage level abilities, the Filipinos will be falling behind our Asian neighbors since we have quite recently begun our K to 12 framework,” he said.

K to 12 project, which has added two years to the nation’s essential instruction cycle, was actualized in 2013 through a law marked by the President.

Be that as it may he said there are solutions for the tourism business. “We are starting short courses for tourism experts just to fill in the crevice,” he said.

Philtoa, an association of 352 visit administrators in the nation, additionally plans to set up a tourism institute in Makati that will offer short tourism courses.

Tourism Secretary Mon Jimenez who went to the occasion on Friday said the tourism business is getting to be more hopeful, particularly with the ASEAN mix completely acknowledged by one year from now.

“The demeanor of the Filipinos towards tourism has changed totally. There is an ability to learn and perform better than we did before and that incorporates our capability to make up for lost time,” Jimenez said.

The tourism division has started to consider the focal points of incorporating in the showcasing its neighbors in the district.

“The world doesn’t simply go in only one particular spot. The individuals go to a locale, particularly on the off chance that they have originated from a far spot. What is useful for Philippine tourism is useful for ASEAN tourism,” he said.

“We will cross over any barrier. In the event that we need to grin more extensive, we will,” Jimenez said.

Prior, Jimenez affirmed that his specialty would be propelling a battle “Visit Philippines Year 2015″ to benefit from the accomplishments of the prior “It’s more fun in the Philippines.”

The tourism division in the Philippines has turned into a genuine business, developing into a Us$4.8 billion (S$6 billion) industry starting a year ago.