Tourism chief looks to build intl airports, destinations

Just as the country bids goodbye to the summer season, Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said during his first press briefing on Monday key infrastructure projects such as building international airports and developing new destinations will help fix the country’s bad tourism image. Lim, who has been in the position for over a year now, admitted that the Philippines had “a lot of catching up to do" in order to be at par with other Southeast Asian countries. The country is marred by the three Ds of negative branding — dirty, dangerous and disorderly, according to the Tourism Department. So far, the Philippines has only addressed the “dangerous" tag by deploying over 1,000 Philippine National Police officers to guard key tourism spots in Metro Manila, Boracay, Palawan, Cebu and Davao. The Philippines ranks sixth among seven countries in terms of the number of foreign tourists in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Malaysia ranks first with 23 million foreign tourists in 2009 while the Philippines only had 3 million. Under the new National Tourism Development Plan, the country aims to double foreign tourist arrivals to 6.3 million while domestic travel is expected to hit 32 million by 2016. Improving market access and connectivity by establishing airports is one of the three key strategies, the tourism chief said. The government is set to hold the bidding for public-private partnership (PPP) projects to establish international airports in Panglao in Bohol, Daraga in Albay, Puerto Princesa in Palawan, and Cagayan de Oro city. “There has been a mismatch in the implementation of tourism management plans," he said, citing the international airport in Iloilo which until now does not have any international flights. “We also need to address the safety concerns raised by the Civil Aviation Authority," he added. Philippine tourism’s saving grace, he said, was domestic travel being boosted by the low fares of local airlines. The department is also looking to develop competitive tourist destinations and products and improve tourism institutional governance and human resources. — BC/VS, GMA News