THE country is now eyeing to attract around 52 million overseas visitors by 2028 by becoming a “tourism powerhouse” with the implementation of its National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP), according to the Department of Tourism (DOT).
In a press conference in Malacañang, DOT Secretary Christina G. Frasco said President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. approved the 2023-2028 NTDP during a sectoral meeting on Tuesday.
She said the plan—the result of their nationwide stakeholder consultations—will serve as the blueprint and development framework for the tourism industry.
“We are very grateful to our President for articulating very early in his administration his priority for tourism development,” Frasco said.
“And this has resulted in a convergence among government agencies as far as giving full support to the development of the industry recognizing the losses that have ensued as a result of the pandemic and various calamities,” she added.
The DOT chief said the budget to implement the five-year NTDP is still undergoing “recalibration” in consideration of the events that the Philippine will host in the coming years.
Improved facilities and access
Under the NTDP, the government will focus developing necessary tourism-related infrastructure, where, Frasco said, the country is still trailing behind its other Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) neighbors.
“The Philippines actually ranks number six vis-à-vis our neighbors in the ASEAN especially in terms of infrastructure, business environment, safety as well as other indices including connectivity,” Frasco said.
To address the gap, she said the government is eyeing to improve the experience of visitors in popular and emerging tourist destinations by building the necessary roads, drainage, sewerage, and water treatment facilities in the said areas.
DOT is also coordinating with the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to restore or put up new connecting flights across the country to make travel to tourist sites more convenient.
Among the newly established routes are the direct flights from Clark to Caticlan, Clark to Busuanga in Palawan, as well as connecting flights from Cebu to Baguio and even Cebu to Bangkok.
Frasco said they are also considering easing visa requirements for countries which are potential top tourist sources such as China and India.
Some of the visa reforms being eyed to attract visitors from such countries are the institution of the electronic visa, resumption of group travel, visa on arrival as well as more liberal landing permits related to tourism.
Digital presence
Also part of the NTDP is the improvement of internet connectivity in major tourist sites to help with the country’s online tourism promotion.
“As we all very well know, many of the tourists now are also vloggers; they vlog about their experience while they are there experiencing or enjoying the tourism sites,” DICT Secretary Ivan E. Uy said.
“So while they’re there, enjoying those experiences, they can actually be also our marketing tool in propagating the message through them, how they’re having fun in the Philippines and how they are enjoying the Philippine experience which will be very unique from many other destinations,” Uy said.
DICT has identified 94 tourist destinations with internet connectivity issues.
It is now prioritizing vital infrastructure to provide free wireless fidelity (Wifi) access in 47 of the said sites located in provinces of Benguet, Palawan, Aklan and Cebu.
Heritage and culture mapping
For NTDP’s component for the “equalization of tourism development and promotion,” Frasco said they are now engaged in developing heritage and culture mapping.
Here, local government units (LGUs) can develop their own local tourism products, to be promoted by DOT.
“The main change, first of all is that the focus of the Department of Tourism will be to highlight the heart and soul of the Filipino that is evident in our culture—our festivals, our food, the local products of our small and medium enterprises, our living cultural heritage, everything that makes us diverse and unique and a proud Filipino people that give us pride of place,” Frasco said.
She said this will be encapsulated in DOT’s “enhanced slogan,” which they will launch “in the next few weeks” after it is presented to tourism stakeholders.
“We will make sure to engage in consultation with our tourism stakeholders first, as their opinions matter very much to us,” Frasco said.
Ongoing recovery
Tourism was one of the top employment and income generators of the country before travel restrictions during the Covid-19 crisis.
The government is hoping the NTDP will help accelerate the recovery of tourism to its prepandemic levels.
With the full implementation of the plan, DOT expects the country will generate 34.7 million tourism-related jobs.
Frasco noted signs of such recovery after foreign tourist arrivals reached 2.65 million last year, exceeding DOT’s target 1.7-million arrivals in 2022.
This year, DOT is hopeful the country will host 4.8 million visitors from abroad after it already registered 2 million arrivals as of May.
Image credits: Joel C. Paredes